RACE  IMPROVEMENT' 

OR 
EUGENICS 

A  Little  Book  on  a  Great  Subject 

BY 

LA  REINE  HELEN  BAKER 


NEW  YORK 
DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 


1912 


. 


COPYRIGHT,  1912 
BY  DODD,  MEAD   AND  COMPANY 

Published,  September,  1912 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    INTRODUCTORY i 

II     HEREDITY,  ENVIRONMENT    .     .  13 

III  THE  CHILD,  ITS  HERITAGE     .  28 

IV  MARRIAGE 40 

V    POSSIBILITIES  OF  RACE  IMPROVE- 
MENT        55 

VI     EDUCATION,  EUGENICS    ...  69 
VII     EUGENICS,  THE  MODERN  FEM- 
INIST  MOVEMENT        ...  86 
VIII    POSITIVE,  NEGATIVE  EUGENICS  .  101 
APPENDICES 

A.  STATE    ENDOWMENT    OF 

MOTHERHOOD   .     .     .120 

B.  STERILISATION  IN  U.  S.  A.  128 


252700 


CHAPTER    I 

INTRODUCTORY 

THE  aim  of  this  little  volume  is  to  in- 
terest the  American  public  in  an  im- 
portant and  neglected  subject.  The 
writer  has  her  own  views  on  art,  poli- 
tics, religion  and  other  topics  which  di- 
vide mankind,  she  does  not  intrude 
those  opinions  here,  although  conscious 
that  "to  see  life  steadily  and  see  it 
whole"  much  more  is  wanted  than  a 
single  branch  of  study,  however  vital. 
It  is  not  possible,  however,  to  remain  si- 
lent and,  at  least  passively,  acquiescent 
when  the  interests  of  the  race  are  in  dan-  \ 
ger  of  neglect.  Need  for  apology  is 
not  considered  when  great  and  influen- 
tial journals,  magazines  and  volumes 
dissipate  their  powers  on  all  the  feeble 
footings  of  the  hour.  There  are  many 
honourable  exceptions.  There  are  or- 
gans of  opinion  in  nearly  all  directions 


2          RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

of  intellectual  speculation,  education 
and  philosophy  and  there  are  of  course 
necessary  volumes  of  information  on 
cooking,  travel,  dress  and  amusement. 
Every  material  interest  except  the  basic 
material  interest  of  our  human  existence 
is  represented  in  our  periodical  press. 
An  expedition  to  the  pole,  a  prodigious 
attempt  to  attract  the  attention  of  Mar- 
tian observers  whose  very  existence  is 
denied  by  more  than  half  our  scientists, 
or  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  rela- 
tive merits  of  various  manurial  nitrates, 
for  these  time  and  money,  private  en- 
terprise and  state  aid  are  readily  forth- 
coming. Professorial  chairs  are  easily 
financed  for  lectures  on  every  necessary 
I  and  unnecessary  subject  other  than  that 
tof  direct  race  improvement.  Churches, 
universities  and  other  institutions  have 
been  endowed  for  the  sake  of  schisms 
which  have  no  direct  bearing  on  any 
$  human  need. 

I  deny  that  people  do  not  care  what 
becomes  of  the  race.     There  never  has 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

been  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  world 
when  parents  would  not  rather  have  a 
healthy  progeny  than  an  unhealthy. 
The  nation  would  always  prefer  to  be 
able  to  boast  of  improvement  instead  of 
blushing  for  its  deteriorating  citizen- 
ship. As  long  as  Mothers  love  their 
own  young  and  as  long  as  the  average 
man  sympathises  with  undeserved  suf- 
fering there  will  be  perpetual  possibili- 
ties for  rousing  interest  in  the  most 
promising  of  all  sciences,  Eugenics. 

Eugenics  is  a  word  invented  by  Fran- 
cis Galton  to  cover  the  philosophy,  col- 
lection of  facts,  the  science,  whatever 
we  can  call  it,  which  regards  race-im-* 
provement  as  a  desirable  and  practicable 
process.  Stirpiculture  is  an  older  word 
for  a  similar  idea.  New  descriptive  or 
misleading  phrases  will  be  invented 
from  time  to  time,  sometimes  by  friends, 
sometimes  by  enemies  of  the  movement- 
It  may  be  well  from  the  first  to  clear 
away  some  misinterpretations.  Accu- 
sations against  new  ideas  commonly  take 


4  RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

the  form  of  attempting  to  show  that  the 
new  and  possibly  good  idea  is  irre- 
trievably committed  to  some  other  idea, 
generally  an  older  and  discredited  one. 
It  is  the  universal  rule,  particularly  in 
Anglo-Saxon  countries,  to  regard  sex- 
relationships  as  so  sacrosanct  that  merely 
to  mention  them  is  to  outrage  modesty 
and  shock  morality.  Fortunately  or 
otherwise  we  have  had  to  overcome  this 
silly  secretiveness.  The  horrible  white- 
slave  traffic,  the  loathsome  increase  of 
venereal  diseases,  the  frequent  revela- 
tions such  as  the  Thaw  case  forced  on  the 
public,  the  necessity  for  protecting  chil- 
dren from  outrage — all  these  and  other 
things  have  made  not  only  possible  but 
obviously  desirable  that  decency,  wis- 
dom and  humanity  should  make  their 
voice  heard.  The  time  has  come  when 
we  will  not  tolerate  the  daily  scandal  of 
having  our  newspapers  polluted  with  de- 
tails of  sexual  abnormalities  while  we 
are  refused  the  opportunity  of  educat- 
ing the  people  in  the  direction  of  purity, 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

health,  and  efficiency  in  the  sexual  rela- 
tion. Eugenics  is  concerned  primarily 
and  materially  with  the  normal  sex  re- 
lationship, which  in  modern  civilised 
lands  means  the  ordinary  legal  mono- 
gamic  marriage.  It  is  perfectly  true 
that  there  have  been  pioneer  reformers, 
to  whom  the  world  owes  much  who  have 
linked  their  ideals  of  race  improvement 
to  an  advocacy  of  freer  sex  relation- 
ships. Modern  eugenists  have  no  such 
divided  council.  They  aim  at  encour- 
aging the  best  births  and  discouraging 
the  worst,  and  all  details  of  their  propa- 
ganda must  be  subordinate  to  this  great 
aspiration.  Seeing  then  that  through 
monogamic  marriage  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  must  overwhelmingly  flow  now  and 
in  all  the  sighted  future,  we  resolutely 
direct  our  attention  to  this  institution  as 
we  find  it.  On  the  lines  of  which  the 
race  has  approved  we  shall  proceed  for 
our  reforms.  The  United  StSls  great 
in  a  thousand  ways,  although  often  the 
despair  of  the  reformer,  offers  the  most 


6  RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

i  promising  field  of  the  whole  world  in 
the  direction  of  Eugenics.  Comprising 
within  her  catholic  embrace  many  vari- 
eties of  monogamic  marriage  she  pos- 

]  sesses  contrasts,  comparisons,  examples 
and  warnings,  which  will  be  of  infinite 
use  in  the  Eugenist's  laboratory.  Well 
may  we  be  content  to  show  from  these 
differences  how  on  the  present  basis  of 
marriage  a  nobler  race  may  be  reared. 
It  is  of  course  only  one  aspect  of  mar- 
riage that  interests  Eugenists,  but  as  ac- 
cording to  the  teaching  of  most 
Churches  and  the  theory  of  most  gov- 
ernments the  origin,  basis  and  reason  of 
marriage  is  procreation,  it  will  be  seen 
that  race  improvement  does  not  look  on 
the  least  important  side  of  marriage. 
In  other  words  it  is  in  its  public  and  uni- 
versal relations  that  marriage  will  be  re- 
garded by  Eugenists.  In  comparatively 
socialised  States  like  ours  where  educa- 
tion and  a  hundred  other  concerns  of 
every  child  are  the  constant  care  of  rep- 
resentative institutions  it  would  be  ret- 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

regression  if  we  did  not  now  begin  to 
consider  the  child  as  having  from  its 
birth  a  public  interest.  Seeing  the  ad- 
vance being  made  in  our  understanding 
of  some  of  the  laws  of  heredity  it  must 
not  be  considered  wonderful  that  this 
public  interest  in  the  future  citizen 
should  begin  even  before  birth.  For 
this  purpose  it  is  not  at  all  necessary/I 
hold  it  to  be  eminently  undesirable,  thai: 
the  Stat&or  any  outside  authorittfshould 
attempt'the  ridiculous  task  of  organising  \ 
who  shall  marry  and  mate,  or  dictate  by 
law  or  force  the  conditions  of  marriages 
which  satisfy  the  contracting  parties^ 
But  this  laisser  faire  doctrine  obviously 
has  no  applicability  to  th^jpuch  more 
disputable  proposition  that  the  State  has 
no  right  to  deal  with  the  source  of  its 
future  responsibilities,  the  root  by  which 
may  arrive  human  wrecks  for  which  tha 
State  must  provide  in  the  days  to  come/  ' 
This  brings  me  to  a  further  protest.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  Eugenists  are 
anarchists,  tearing  up  the  roots  of  gov- 


8  RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

ernment,  blindly  striking  at  civilised  in- 
stitutions, putting  a  bomb  to  the  founda- 

\  tions  of  Church,  State,  and  Family.  Let 
it  be  said  here  and  now  in  such  clear 
phrase  as  may  be  that/Eugenics  is  the 

\  antithesis  of  anarchy,  it  means  order. 
Eugenics  opposes  chaos  in  the  interests 
of  the  race.  /It  is  the  most  profoundly 
patriotic  proposition  ever  laid  before 
the  people  of  these  United  States.  Its 

^  conception  is  for  the  national  good. 
.American  Eugenists  will  never  rest  un* 

f  til  our  race  becomes  the  fittest  on  earth. 
Other  nations  shall  teach  us  if  they  can, 
we  will  better  their  instruction.  Mon- 
archical old  world  peoples,  restrained  by 
traditions,  tied  down  by  red  tape, 
drugged  by  the  dread  of  progress,  mg^ 
justify  their  own  inertia,  we  cannot  sink 

f  with  them.  We  are  leaders  and  pio- 
neers. In  the  United  States  respect  is 
still  accorded  to  those  who  have  new 
truths  to  teach  for  the  benefit  of  the 
race.  If  "national  efficiency"  has  to 
some  extent  failed  in  its  appeal,  if  the 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

answer  has  been  an  admission  of  unac- 
complished desires,  the  reason  must  be 
ascribed  to  the  limited  scope  of  the  in- 
quiry. The  nation  has  to  take  itself 
seriously  in  hand.  We  need  to  get  be- 
yond the  citizen  of  to-day,  we  have  to 
consider  the  .citizen  of  to-morrow. 

As  to  religion,  I  appeal  both  to  those 
who  love  God  and  to  those  who  love 
their  fellow-man.  It  is  futile  at  this 
time  of  day  to  quote  against  the  living 
race  the  dictates  of  a  dead  age.  It  is 
monstrous  also  to  slander  the  noble  men 
and  women  who  are  at  present  engaged 
in  the  secular  activities  of  our  Churches 
by  pretending  to  believe  that  they  are 
not  most  keenly  anxious  to  aid  in  any 
uplifting  work  for  the  regeneration  of 
the  'world.  Every  institution  which  is 
teaching,  feeding  or  otherwise  helping 
children  is  a  nucleus  for  Eugenic  enter- 
prise. The  neglect  of  Eugenics  in  the 
last  generation  has  clogged  the  wheels  j 
of  progress  in  this  generation.  We  caiv 
not  and  must  not  forget  the  victims  or 


io         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

our  national  neglect,  but  we  can  do 
greatest  honour  to  our  philanthropists 
and  workers  for  the  general  uplift  by 
seriously  endeavouring  to  eliminate 
from  the  coming  generation  the  hope- 
lessly unfit  and  by  encouraging  the  mul- 
tiplication of  the  efficient. 

There  is  no  immorality  in  our  pro- 
posals, as  a  glance  at  these  pages  will 
abundantly  prove.  The  Family  of  the 
future  is  going  to  be  sweeter,  purer  and 
nobler.  It  may  even  be  more  numer- 
ous, for  while  Eugenists  resolutely  set 
themselves  to  discourage  the  national 
burdening  by  debt,  danger  and  decay 
which  inevitably  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  a  deteriorating  race,  we  have  never- 
theless no  opinions  whatever  as  to 
whether  a  numerically  large  or  small 
family  is  best.  Race  suicide  is  no  worse 
than  race  murder.  We  cannot  imagine 
a  nobler  sight  than  an  enormous  and 
increasing  race  of  the  vitally  fit.  A  tem- 
porary and  deliberate  discouragement  of 
certain  unwelcome  elements  may  be  mo- 


INTRODUCTORY      n 

mentarily  embarrassing,  but  this  is  only 
half  the  story.  Our  ports  of  entry  are 
firmly  closed  in  the  face  of  undesirable 
aliens,  not  for  the  purpose  of  reducing 
our  population,  far  from  it.  Our  sta- 
bility, our  greatness,  our  very  existence 
depend  on  the  success, with  which  we 
have  attracted  to  our  shores  those  immi- 
grants whose  children  to-day  are  our 
boast  and  pride.  Eugenics,  it  cannot  be 
too  often  said,  is  no  mere  phase  of  Mal- 
thusianism.  It  is  not  a  population  ques- 
tion it  is  the  population  question.  It 
dismisses  Malthus  as  a  spent  force,  as 
a  prophet  whose  message  was  only  half 
delivered,  as  a  Jeremiah  who  would  have 
deprived  the  world  of  its  saviours  as 
well  as  of  its  betrayers.  Of  Malthus 
it  may  truly  be  said  that  in  forbidding 
those  who  would  uwade  through 
slaughter  to  a  throne"  he  "shut  the 
gates  of  mercy  on  mankind."  No  phi- 
losophy to-day  can  meet  the  needs  of  to- 
day if  it  indiscriminately  decreases  both. 
Both  methods  are  evil.  We  must  weigh 


12         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

as  well  as  count.  The  Sphinx  of  civili- 
sation sits  waiting  our  answer  to  her 
riddle.  We  have  mingled  the  seeds  of 
evil  with  the  seeds  of  good.  Mere  me- 
chanical multiplication  only  accentuates 
the  evil  because  weeds  are  always  of 
quicker  growth_  than  the  flower  plants 
which  they  deprive  of  their  due  share 
of  light  and  air.  Patient  division  of 
the  seeds,  careful  sorting,  subtracting  as 
far  as  possible  the  contaminating  ele- 
ments, and  giving  all  the  needful  atten- 
tion to  the  sturdy  but  perverse,  encour- 
aging those  seeds  which  in  various  ways 
will  one  day  grow  into  perfect  trees  so 
as  to  show  flower;  to  bear  fruit,  give 
shade,  make  timber  or  in  any  other  way 
serve  the  multifarious  needs  of  the  na- 
tion. 


CHAPTER    II 

HEREDITY     AND     ENVIRONMENT 

/  EUGENICS  is  not  committed  to  the  Dar- 
winian doctrine  of  evolution,  although  it 
would  probably  never  have  reached  the 
stage  of  practical  politics  but  for  the  en- 
couragement given  to  all  systematic  sci- 
entific studies  by  Darwin's  magnificent 
generalisations.  Eugenics  takes  its 
stand  on  the  ascertained  fact  of  heredity, 
and  it  owes  an  immense  debt  to  the  pa- 
tience with  which  Lamarck,  the  Dar- 
wins,  Weissman  and  others  have  piled 
instance  upon  instance  to  illustrate 
the  fact  that  "the  sins  of  the 
fathers  are  visited  upon  the  children 
unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation"/ 
and  "the  fathers  have  eaten  sour 
grapes  and  the  children's  teeth  are 
set  on  edge."  The  doctrine  of  heredity 
has  never  been  more  resonantly  ex- 
pressed than  in  these  words  although 
13 


14         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

they  show  only  one  side  and  that  not  the 
better  side  of  heredity.  We  are  in- 
deed  "begotten  not  made."  Nurture, 
or  environment,  has  its  place,  and  an  im- 
portant one,  in  race  improvement,  but 
the  overwhelming  fact  remains  that 
more  than  three-fourths  of  the  elements 
which  build  up  a  human  soul  are  in  its 
nature,  not  its  nurture.  *-  The  formative 
factor  of  greatest  importance  in  the 
making  of  human  life  and  character  is 
heredity.  * 

Mankind  has  hitherto  failed  to  grasp 
the  full  significance  of  this  admission. 
Horticulturists  have  made  it  the  starting 
point  of  their  experiments  until  to-day 
the  Luther  Burbanks  can  almost  create 
what  they  will  in  plant  life.  Cattle- 
breeders,  dog-fanciers,  and  horse-farm- 
ers, are  able  to  raise  the  value  of  their 
breeds  to  a  wonderful  degree.  Orni- 
thologists have  been  equally  successful; 
from  the  original  stock  a  hundred  vari- 
eties come  at  the  touch  of  the  scientific 
magician's  wand.  In  each  case  even 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT    15 

where  at  first  quantity  was  considered  of 
no  importance  compared  with  quality, 
there  has  been  a  steady  and  unmistak- 
able increase  in  the  effective  numbers 
side  by  side  with  a  gigantic  development 
of  those  elements  of  strength  or  beauty 
which  have  been  arrived  at.  Race  sui- 
cide is  a  metaphysical  phrase  not  easily 
open  to  definition,  but  two  things  may 
be  said  about  it  at  this  stage.  Race  im- 
provement is  utterly  inconsistent  with 
any  intelligent  conception  of  race  sui- 
cide. An  increasing  birthrate  is  not  in 
itself  a  guarantee  of  progress  arid  may! 
indeed  be -the  means  of  a  nation's  retro- 
gression. Experience  and  logic  lead  to 
the  confident  conclusion  that  increased 
vitality  means  increased  fecundity. 

To  acknowledge  the  law  of  heredity 
with   its   concomitant   scientific   implica- 
tions, must  inevitably  change  our  mental 
outlook    in    many    directions.     Accord- 
ingly as  we  relatively  place  heredity  or  j 
environment  first,   our  views  on  social  j 
politics  will  be  fundamentally  sound  or  • 


16         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

[unsound.  Taking  a  large  view  of  so- 
ciety it  must  make  an  abysmal  difference 
whether  we  think  the  race  can  or  cannot 
be  improved  (not  merely  polished  or 
even  enlightened  but  really  changed)  by 

i  modifications  of  environment.  We  can 
no  longer  pursue  the  same  and  by  the 
same  means  if  we  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  individual  is  either  born  a 
potential  asset  to  society  or  "damned 
into  existence"  a  permanent  drain  on  his 
fellows'  comfort  and  wealth,  even  a  pos- 
sible miasma  of  infectious  criminality. 

I  am  a  Eugenist  because  I  believe  that 
the  nature  we  have  received  from  he- 
reditary sources  transcends  in  effective- 
ness all  the  nurture  which  follows  birth. 
Eugenics  means  seeking  for  facts  and 
applying  them  to  solve  the  greatest  of 
all  problems — looking  for  light  by  which 

\  the  race  may  cpniroMts  destiny.  He- 
redity in  the  animal  and  vegetable  world 
may  be  considered  dispassionately 
enough.  Geology  and  astronomy  are 
only  hereditary  studies  affecting  the  birth 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT    17 

of  worlds.  But  from  human  birth  and 
sex,  the  mysteries  of  creation  in  their 
divinest  form,  from  these  branches  of 
the  study  of  heredity  the  flaming  sword 
of  prudery  warns  us  away.  The  sub- 
ject of  human  sex  has  been  the  play- 
ground of  neglect,  ignorance,  bigotry, 
superstition,  persecution  and  every  other 
foe  to  inquiry.  It  has  been  the  object 
of  worship  but  not  of  explanation,  of  ro- 
mance but  not  of  science,  of  abuse,  mu-T* 
tilation,  misunderstanding,  but  not  of 
study,  reason  and  generalization.  Eu-  . 
genics  of  course  aims  at  expressing  the 
scientific  side  of  the  process  of  which 
love  is  the  artistic.  The  rare  handful 
of  brave  men  and  women  who  against 
unique  opposition  have  forced  this  ques- 
tion to  the  front  are  not  to  be  blamed  if 
up  to  now  Eugenics  can  hardly  be  said 
to  exist  as  a  systematised  science.  It  is 
in  the  nature  of  things  that  as  a  philoso-  v 
phy  Eugenics  is  hardly  more  than  a 
guess,  a  probability,  an  hypothesis. 
Doubt,  uncertainty  and  half-heartedness 


i8         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

inevitably  accompany  a  movement  so  un- 
deservedly discredited  as  this  has  been. 
Without  the  means  to  collect  the  enor- 
mous body  of  facts  required  to  justify 
national  action  the  Eugenists  have  been 
content  to  rely  upon  personal  experi- 
ences, isolated  family  histories  and  the 
normal  and  abnormal  facts  which  news- 
papers, biographies  and  daily  life  pre- 
sented to  them.  Eugenists  have 
wrestled  against  difficulties  like  Hercu- 
les in  the  Augean  stable  or  Paul  in  the 
Ephesian  arena.  In  fact  the  stable  and 
the  arena  throw  more  light  on  Eugenics 
than  any  at  present  available  from  the 
human  animal.  The  existent  biology  of 
Eugenics  means  a  study  of  non-human 
life.  There  is  a  sufficiently  extensive 
literature  and  digest  of  experiments  re- 
lating to  animal  and  plant  life  to  serve 
as  the  stock  in  trade  of  a  fairly  complete 
system  of  Eugenics — if  only  fuschias 
were  men  or  men  were  mules.  External 
observations  of  animal  and  plant  life 
cannot  universally  apply  to  man  even 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT    19 

passively,  while  the  active  interference 
of  the  human  botanist  in  the  affairs  of 
the  unprotesting  plants  separates  these 
from  men  by  an  impassable  chasm. 

The  first  need  then  for  Eugenic  study 
is  some  systematic  collection  of  the  as- 
certainable  facts  as  far  as  they  relate  to 
human  beings.  This  implies  sufficient 
scientific  interest  in  the  phenomena  of 
parentage  to  encourage  widespread 
earnest  patient  desire  to  exchange  infor- 
mation and  to  steadily  accumulate 
enough  knowledge  to  justify  experiment 
in  positive  and  negative  Eugenics.  No 
sane  Eugenist  advocates  universal  State 
action  based  on  the  existent  records,  but 
it  would  be  against  all  good  precedent 
if  the  absence  of  sufficient  knowledge  on 
a  vital  subject  were  allowed  to  stultify 
the  efforts  of  those  who  seek  for  fuller 
information.  Nothing  but  good  will 
ensue  if  positive  experiments  are  boldly 
labelled  as  such,  instead  of  pretending 
that  our  twilight  of  investigation  is  the 
full  light  of  perfect  knowledge.  Ex- 


2o         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

periments  in  positive  Eugenics  will  take 
various  forms.  They  began  with  the 
most  ordinary  baby-shows;  they  pro- 
ceeded through  municipal  prizes  for  the 
healthiest  offsprings.  An  important 
stage  arose  when  premiums  in  some 
cities  began  to  be  offered  to  all  parents 
whose  babies  survived  the  critical  first 
year  of  life.  These  were  elementary 
experiments,  based  on  the  right  motive 
but  ignoring  the  element  of  heredity. 
The  experiments  of  the  future  must  be 
on  a  surer  foundation.  The  current 
criteria  of  judgment  are  sound  enough  as 
far  as  they  go,  they  encourage  careful 
nurture,  but  the  limitations  of  the  ex- 
periments are  those  of  an  unscientific 
age.  Obviously  the  next  step  in  the 
same  'direction  is  to  discriminate.  The 
haphazard  chance  that  of  fifty  children 
properly  nourished  one  may  be  distin- 
guished by  its  superior  physique  does  not 
materially  help  us  to  solve  our  problem 
if  we  stop  at  this  phase.  Having  found 
our  healthiest  child  we  might  at  least  try 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT    11 

to  discover  the  hereditary  history  of  its 
progenitors  and  take  steps  to  encourage 
further  offsprings  from  so  promising  a 
source.  Imagine  a  scientific  cattle- 
breeder  possessing  a  perfect  bull,  con- 
tented that  one  of  its  offsprings  should 
take  a  single  prize!  Not  to  unduly 
strain  the  analogy  we  might  with  all  de- 
corum and  wisdom  circulate  what  knowl- 
edge we  can  glean  of  those  facts  which 
have  made  perfection  possible.  Are  we 
to  be  everlastingly  contented  with  news 
of  the  romantic,  sensational,  abnormal 
and  criminal  phenomena  of  sex  while 
our  newspapers  and  official  records  are 
silent  concerning  ordinary  and  desirable 
experiences,  their  causes  and,  their  re- 
sults? Heredity  as  the  basis  of  legisla- 
tion is  never  dreamt  of,  while  our 
statute  books  are  crowded  with  laws 
passed  in  a  panic,  laws  which  bear  no 
ratio  to  essential  facts,  and  laws  which 
look  at  the  elementary  passions  of  man- 
kind through  the  refractory  media  of 
prejudice,  ignorance  and  well-meaning 


22         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

misconception.  It  rarely  if  ever  occurs 
to  legislators  that  a  scientific  system  of 
society  demands  an  acquaintance  with 
the  recently  accepted  conclusions  of  our 
greatest  thinkers.  We  are  suffering  to- 
day from  a  pre-Darwinian  government 
in  almost  all  our  States.  "Authorities" 
of  all  kinds  are  quoted  in  support  of  and 
against  any  given  proposal,  but  the  "au- 
thorities" are  seldom  the  fittest.  In 
earlier  days  latin  tags  were  considered 
a  worthy  conclusion  to  a  speech  in  Sen- 
ate or  Legislature.  Nowadays  poetry 
or  literature  is  called  into  requisition. 
Darwin,  Spencer  and  Galton  should  at 
least  have  taught  us  to  take  trouble  to 
learn  all  about  the  subject  in  hand  and 
what  bearing  the  scientific  discoveries  of 
our  generation  have  upon  particular 
problems.  It  is  a  disease  of  the  age  that 
we  are  conscious  of  our  national  short- 
comings in  only  the  vaguest  possible 
way.  We  are  ignorant  of  the  full  ex- 
tent of  our  misfortunes  and  we  do  not 
apply  to  them  the  time,  trouble  and 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT    23 

money  which  are  a  preliminary  neces- 
sity to  discovering  a  remedy,  and  we 
forget  the  dynamic  difference  which 
must  be  made  in  our  treatment  of  race 
problems  as  soon  as  we  accept  heredity 
as  the  controlling  factor.  But  the  pre- 
liminaries must  be  insisted  on.  Investi- 
gation, collation,  classification,  generali- 
sation, and  legislation,  must  be  taken  in 
their  right  order. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  investi- 
gating the  laws  which  govern  heredity 
have  as  usual  led  to  shirking  the  issue 
altogether.     Even   when   we   look   the 
difficulty  straight  in  the  face,  we  pass  it 
by.     We  have  made  a  god  of  environ-! 
ment.     Our  best  social  efforts  hitherto 
in   legislation,    social   conventions,   con- 
duct and  educational  ideals  (and  in  mod- 
ern times  even  our  religions),  have  come 
to    consider    environment    as    of    para- 
mount importance.     But  take  environ-  \ 
ment  at  its  highest  it  can  only  be  the  h£$t  K 
soil  for  the  best  seed.     That  is  a  Eu- 
genic ideal  also  but  it  cannot  convert  a 


24         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

disease  germ  into  a  desirable  citizen. 
Over-emphasis  of  reform  dependent  on 
improved  environment  implies  that  a 
deadly  upas  tree,  if  transplanted  and 
properly  watered  and  "given  a  better 
chance,"  will  reward  society  with  a  plen- 
tiful harvest  of  edible  nourishing  fruit. 
The  heartless  school  which  on  principles 
hates  all  reform  derives  its  chief  support 
from  the  fact  that  the  reform  which  re- 
gards only  environment  too  often  de- 
scends to  veneering  v.ice  with  respecta- 
bility or  dissipates  itself  in  futilities  of  a 
grandmotherly  kind.  The  reformer  of 
\  the  future  must  study  causes  as  well  as 
phenomena.  The  skilled  physician  re- 
gards symptoms  as  of  importance  only 
to  the  extent  that  they  assist  the  diagno- 
sis of  disease.  Accurate  analysis  must 
consider  hereditary  causes  as  well  as  lo- 
cal symptoms. 

Environment  when  properly  subordi- 
nated to  and  illuminated  by  heredity 
does  not  cease  to  be  ihiportant.  Envi- 
ronment may  provide  wings  to  fly  with 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT    25 

and  an  atmosphere  capable  of  sustain- 
ing weight,  even  when  it  cannot  provide 
the  will  to  fly.  To  return  to  our  agri- 
cultural symbolism:  environment  cannot 
make  or  change  the  nature  of  the  seed, 
it  is  the  soil,  the  sunshine  and  the  succu- 
lence, but  it  has  to  take  the  seed  as  it  is. 
Heredity  is  inside  the  seed  and  goes  be- 
hind the  seed  to  the  mother  plant. 
Heredity  is  what  our  ancestors  meant 
when  they  said  predestination,  necessity, 
destiny. 

Philosophers  of  pre-Darwin  days 
have  lured  mankind  into  the  pleasant 
but  dangerously  untrue  belief  that  hu- 
man nature  is  essentially  and  universally 
good.  This  crude  generalisation  of 
Rousseau's  gospel  does  some  injustice  to 
that  great  man's  philosophy  which  repre- 
sented a  necessary  revolt  from  the  soul- 
destroying  perversion  of  heredity  which 
described  man  as  uniformly  "born  in  sin 
and  shaped  in  iniquity."  Experience 
has  revolted  against  both  extremes. 
The  Heavenly  father  is  no  longer  a 


26         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

Fiend  who  destines  "one  to  heav'n  and 
ten  to  hell,"  and  the  Earthly  Parent 
emerges  from  his  ancient  unimportance. 
Man  is  in  neither  case  fortuitous,  his  na- 
ture, potentiality  and  destiny  are  writ 
large  in  the  study  of  his  heredity.  We 
are  all,  like  poets,  born  not  made;  as 
we  are:  we  remain:  we  develop  on  lines 
long  ago  laid  down  for  us  by  other  forces 
than  those  environment  can  control  and 
it  is  still  impossible  to  make  a  silk  purse 
out  of  a  sow's  ear.  This  consideration 
puts  into  proper  perspective  the  things 
which  matter,  and  warns  us  to  cease  vain 
expenditure  on  unscientific  phlianthropy. 
The  efforts  wasted  on  watering  weeds 
might  have  made  the  garden  smile  with 
fragrant  flowers.  Environment ,jneans 
opportunity.  We  shall  understand  bet- 
ter how  and  why  environments  need  re- 
construction when  we  recognise,  the  su- 
perior importance  of  heredity.  We 
shall  begin  to  realise  the  uselessness  of 
forcing  qualities  into  the  human  organ- 
ism, and  become  all  the  more  anxious  to 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT    27 

afford  opportunity  for  developing  what- 
ever utilisable  qualities  are  already  there 
existent.  We  shall  learn  to  educate,  in 
the  old  sense  of  the  word.  We  shall 
bring  out  the  maximum  of  the  good 
within.  We  will  no  longer  tolerate  the 
cruelties  and  crudities  of  abortive  at- 
tempts to  instil  properties  and  qualities 
of  character  which  not  being  inherent 
can  never  be  successfully  inoculated. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE     CHILD     AND     ITS     HERITAGE 

THE  previous  chapter  suggests  that  un- 
less due  regard  is  given  to  heredity  an 
increased  population  will  merely  aggra- 
vate the  existing  social  problems.  It  is 
necessary  also  to  emphasise  the  impor- 
tance of  watching  our  death  statistics  as 
well  as  our  birth  returns.  Obviously  a 
nation  with  a  low  percentage  of  births 
compared  with  its  population  may  be  in- 
creasing the  latter  much  more  largely 
as  well  as  more  healthily  than  a  nation 
with  a  much  larger  percentage  of  births. 
The  pulse  of  each  hand  must  be  felt. 
Infant  mortality  is  as  easily  ascertain- 
able  and  is  of  at  least  equal  importance. 
Infant  efficiency  is  unfortunately  less 
easily  ascertainable  statistically.  Sub- 
ject to  these  qualifications  the  Eugenics 
school  welcomes  Mr.  Roosevelt's  pro- 
28 


THE  CHILD  AND  ITS  HERITAGE    29 

tests  against  Race  Suicide,  and  gladly 
identifies  itself  with  any  religous,  politi- 
cal or  social  effort  to  bring  to  our  citi- 
zens a  sense  of  what  we  owe  to  the  com- 
monwealth. It  is  not  a  matter  to  be  dis- 
missed with  a  speech  or  a  magazine 
article  when  we  see  almost  every  career 
in  the  world  glorified,  and  parentage 
alone  sneered  at.  Believers  in  Eu- 
genics regard  with  a  horror  based  on  a 
certainty  of  evil  consequence  when  they 
contemplate  a  State  in  which  the  noble 
task  of  motherhood  is  left  to  the  goor 
while  the  rich  evade  their  duties.  It  is 
stupid  as  well  as  abominable  to  reproach 
heroic  but  juninstructed  mothers  of  the 
less  wealthy  classes.  Year  after  year 
they  think  they  are  fulfilling  their 
destined  purpose  in  life  by  adding  to 
their  families  a  burden  difficult  to  bear. 
In  the  long  run,  after  Nature  has  exer- 
cised a  cruel  elimination,  this  burden  of 
the  individual  becomes  the  glory  of  the 
race,  the  very  bloom  and  blossom  of  the 
future.  Neither  can  reproach  be  given 


30        RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

to  the  parents  in  the   slums.     Nature 
•here  seems  to  be  prodigal  indeed.     The 
children  come,   only  the  doctors  know 
the  terrible  tale  of  them.     To  the  regis- 
trar they  are  but  a  name,  to  the  statis- 
tician a  number,  but  to  the  City  and  the 
State  they  mean  cemeteries,  hospitals, 
prisons,   asylums,   as  well  as  barracks. 
But  I  am  not  dealing  here  with  the  whole 
;   problem  of  poverty.     Eugenics  -aims  at 
[  breeding  tile-fittest  from  the  fittest  and 
|  it  sees 

"How  many  a  gem  of  purest  ray  serene 
;l  The  dark  unfathom'd  caves  of  ocean  bear." 

Even  in  the  most  unpromising  sur- 
roundings one  sees  noble  sparks  of  life 
not  to  be  quenched  by  poverty  or  any 
other  vital  enemy.  The  Christ  con- 
tinues to  be  born  in  a  stable. 

It  is  when  we  reach  the  exclusive  cir- 
cles of  the  rich  that  we  see  how  the 
race  is  decaying.  Children  are  at  a 
discount.  Parentage  is  coming  to  be 
considered  a  waste  of  time.  A  man  can- 


THE  CHILD  AND  ITS  HERITAGE   31 

not  spare  his  wife  from  social  functions. 
Dressmakers  agree  that  the  coming  of  a 
child  destroys  symmetry  and  prevents 
fashionable  tight-lacing.  Besides  there 
are  other  pastimes  to  consider.  Nei- 
ther the  State  nor  the  individual  will 
make  the  public  believe  that  the  pro- 
duction of  healthy  children  is  as  im- 
portant as  baseball,  horse-racing  or 
stamp  collecting.  Millions  of  dollars 
are  spent  on  securing  the  best  breeds 
of  horses.  Seven  thousand  dollars  re- 
cently was  the  price  of  a  single  four-cent 
stamp.  Dogs,  in  the  highest  circles,  r^ 
have  luxuries  of  food,  clothing  and  ^ 
housing  which  the  servants  who  feed 
them  never  possessed.  Dog-cemeteries 
exist  where  more  money  is  spent  on  the 
tombstone  of  a  dead  dog  than  would 
keep  a  live  human  family  for  a  year. 
"Foxes  have  holes,  the  birds  of  the  air 
have  nests"  but  the  children  of  the  poor 
starve  and  the  rich  prefer  the  pastime 
of  the  moment  to  the  permanent  inter- 
ests of  the  race. 


32         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

Degerieracy  is  not  a  disease  by  spe- 
cific intention,  it  is  an  attribute  to  our 
social  neglect,  it  is  the  result  of  our  in- 
attention to  vital  issues,  it  is  a  sign  that 
we  are  no  longer  keenly  anxious  to  ele- 
vate the  race.  Race  improvement  re- 
quires, under  modern  conditions  of  life, 
eternal  vigilance  arid  deliberate  aim. 
The  prolific  character  of  the  degenerate 
type  has  often  been  remarked.  It  finds 
expression  in  the  homely  proverb  "111 
weeds  grow  apace."  But  the  "growth", 
i  is  in  the  undesirable  direction — they  do 
not  grow  better.  If  it  were  not  for  the 
wasteful  cruelty  of  it  all  one  would  see 
some  gleam  of  satisfaction  in  the  ad- 
mitted fact  that  many  of  these  breeds 
of  degenerates  are  almost  as  short-lived 
as  they  are  prolific.  The  handsome  vil- 
lain of  contemporary  romance,  healthy 
in  physique'  and  mentally  alert  is  a  mis- 
leading picture  entirely  at  variance  with 
fact.  The  degenerate  child  is  neither 
beautiful,  robust  nor  mentally  sound. 
While  the  number  of  children  per 


THE  CHILD  AND  ITS  HERITAGE    33 

family  is  four  on  the  average,  Dr.  Tred- 
gold  tells  us  that  the  average  of  births 
in  a  degenerate  family  is  over  seven,  in 
addition  to  the  still-born  who  in  the  case 
of  the  degenerates  amount  to  about 
fifteen  per  cent  of  the  children  born/ 
Almost  every  prison  in  the  civilised 
world  bears  record  to  the  direct  injury 
inflicted  on  the  community  by  the  degen- 
erate class.  The  feeble-minded ^alo 
amount  to  an  appreciable  percentage  of 
the  ordinary  population  of  our  prisons, 
and,  if  to  these  are  added  other  victims 
of  hereditary  degeneracy,  there  -will  be 
left  only  what  may  be  described  as  the 
"Criminals  by  accident."  I  am  not 
claiming  too  much  for  the  science  when 
I  say  that  Eugenics  is  capable  of  revolu- 
tionising these  terrible  conditions.  The 
hereditary  nature  of  the  taint  of  crimi- 
nality is  proved  by  the  history  and 
bodily  characteristics  of  its  unhappy  vic- 
tims. Eugenists  as  such  have  no  special 
remedy  for  the  present  day  criminality. 
Their  work  is  to  point  to  the  breeding 


34         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

of  the  criminal  and  to  urge  the  impor- 
tance of  stopping  .  his  multiplication. 
As  soon  as  society  begins  to  take  steps 
towards  cutting  off  the  supply  of  the 
degenerate  there  will  be  no  object  in 
perpetuating  cruel  punishments  whose 
only  object  was  deterrence, 
r  Alcoholism  may  be  treated  as  a  sepa- 
rate phase  of  this  great  question  or  it 
may  be  regarded  as  but  a  manifestation 
of  feeble-mindedness.  In  either  case  it 
can  be  shown  that  the  children  of  de- 
generates are  those  most  often  prone  to 
>  the  drink  evil.  It  is  not  a  fact  that  a 
drunkard's  children  necessarily  grow  up 
drunkards.  This  assertion  which  is 
sometimes  met  with  in  Temperance  lit- 
erature is  based  on  a  misconception  of 
what  heredity  is  and  a  misunderstanding 
of  what  alcoholism  is.  Alcoholism 
tends  to  eliminate  the  alcoholic.  The 
children  of  the  drunkard  may  not  be 
drunkards  but  they  may  exhibit  weak- 
nesses, cravings  for  destructive  media 
or  absence  of  self-control  which  at 


THE  CHILD  AND  ITS  HERITAGE   35 

length  terminate  their  generation. 
There  is  only  one  final  cure  for  national 
intemperance  and  that  is  a  more  humane 
imitation  of  Nature's  own  plan.  Na- 
ture seems  cruel  in  its  work  because  its 
effectiveness  is  not  hindered  by  moral  or 
humane  considerations.  Man  cannot 
and  must  not  imitate  Nature's  ruthless- 
ness  even  if  the  process  of  elimination 
becomes  a  slower  one.  We  can  imitate 
Nature's  methodical  incisiveness  without 
following  Nature's  murderous  indiffer- 
ence. In  some  directions  we  may  even 
accelerate  Nature's  processes,  not  by  in- 
creasing the  pains  and  penalties  which 
she  inflicts  on  a  gradually  disappearing 
progeny,  but  by  narrowing  the  circle  of 
the  victims;  by  declining  to  longer  toler- 
ate the  procreation  of  a  hopeless  gen- 
eration. 

I  do  not  deny  that  temperance  and 
similar  effort  at  moral  suasion  form  a 
valuable  buttress  against  the  worst  phe- 
nomena of  alcoholism.  It  serves  the 
same  purpose  of  help  that  bread  does? 


36         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

to  the  starving  destitute,  it  'does  not 
solve  the  problem  but  it  is  a  necessary 
work  all  the  same,  a  valuable  adjunct 
to  a  radical  cure,  and  only  objectionable 
if  it  stands  in  the  way  of  prevention 
which  is  better  than  cure. 

There  is  a  heritage  for  children  worse, 
perhaps,  than  criminality,  feeble-minded- 
ness  or  a  tendency  to  alcoholic  excess. 
I  refer  to  venereal  diseases.  Painful  or 
otherwise  the  ~subjecTTTmst  be  discussed 
in  this  connection  sooner  or  later.  Like 
alcoholism,  this  disease  contributes  to 
its  own  elimination,  its  victims  do  not 
survive  many  generations.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  obtain  statistics  reasonably  com- 
plete of  the  depredations  wrought  by 
these  diseases.  Professor  Fournier  re- 
gards them  as  social  danger  ( i )  By 
the  individual  damage  inflicted,  (2)  The 
damage  inflicted  on  the  family,  (3)  The 
hereditary  consequences,  especially  the 
infant  mortality  which  is  terrible,  (4) 
The  race  deterioration  and  depopula- 
tion entailed.  Public  opinion  is  ripe 


THE  CHILD  AND  ITS  HERITAGE   37 

for  Eugenic  treatment  of  this  subject 
for  one  good  reason,  namely  that  every 
other  remedy  has  either  failed  after  trial 
or  is  in  the  nature  of  things  incapable 
of  adequate  enforcement.  State  regu- 
lation of  vice,  with  its  corollary,  State 
examination  of  women,  is  nowadays  op- 
posed by  medical  authorities  because  of 
the  illusory  security  from  infection  which 
it  implies,  and  is  bitterly  resented  by  all 
reformers  as  an  intolerable  tyranny  ap- 
plicable only  to  a  single  sex. 

If  I  have  emphasised  the  evils  which 
are  the  heritage  of  so  large  a  number  of 
our  children,  it  must  never  be  forgotten 
that  great  as  is  the  proportion  of  the  un- 
fit, we  have  not  yet  reached  the  stage 
when  there  are  more  unfit  than  fit.  The 
heritage  of  evil  represents  the  need  for 
Eugenics  in  its  negative  aspect.  We 
are  perfectly  well  aware  of  the  charac- 
teristics which  we  desire  to  eliminate, 
and  this  is  of  very  great  importance,  not 
only  because  of  the  active  harm  which  a 
decadent  type  represents  in  our  civilisa- 


38        RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

tion,  but  there  is  the  further  considera- 
tion that  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  the  re- 
formative effort  of  our  legislative  and 
social  crusades,  and  of  the  philanthropic 
side  of  our  religous  life,  is  concentrated 
on  this  appalling  problem.  The  release 
of  much  of  this  effort  would  tend  to- 
wards enlightening  the  nation  in  other 
directions.  It  is  not  at  all  wonderful 
that  we  should  recognise  our  national 
agreement  about  the  types  we  would 
gladly  eliminate  while  we  disagree  very 
widely  about  the  types  we  would  most 
value.  This  arises  largely  from  the 
fact  that  our  attention  for  many  years 
has  been  riveted  on  "the  submerged 
tenth,"  on  "degeneracy"  on  "the  crimi- 
nal classes"  and  on  the  various  other 
descriptions  of  the  undesirable.  What 
a  little  share  in  our  organised  study  of 
man  has  the  best  type  had.  We  have 
fed  the  unfit  and  left  the  healthy  un- 
heeded. Actually  while  we  have  been 
discussing  the  problem  of  improvement 
we  have  seen  the  destruction  and  disap- 


THE  CHILD  AND  ITS  HERITAGE    39 

pearance  through  war,  disease  and  pov- 
erty of  representatives  of  types  which 
stood  in  no  need  of  improvement  but 
only  of  perpetuating.  But  in  the  main 
if  we  do  not  agree  as  to  the  most  de- 
sirable heritage  a  child  should  have  there 
is  very  much  common  ground  between 
us  all.  Wejbelieve  that  every  child  has 
the  right  to  a  good  constitution.  Wei 
regard  as  a  misfortune  every  obstacle* 
which  renders  healthy  parents  unwilling 
or  unable  to  add  their  contribution  to 
the  welfare  of  the  State  by  increasing 
the  number  of  happy  children  growing 
into  efficient  men  and  women.  Why 
wonder  at  the  anti-social  elements  to  be 
found  in  every  city?  What  claim  has 
the  State  on  its  children  when  the  State 
has  neglected  the  duty  of  a  parent.  To 
be  a  citizen  is  too  great  an  honor  to  be- 
stow on  the  hopeless  children  of  degen- 
erate parents.  These  children's  heri- 
tage is  sorrow,  the  nation's  remorse  is 
unavailing,  Nemesis  overtakes  the  neg- 
lectful State, 


CHAPTER    IV 

MARRIAGE 

FORTY  years  ago  it  would  have  been  pos- 
sible to  say  that  all  encouragements  to 
marriage  necessarily  meant  increasing 
the  birth  rate.  Economic  and  other 
causes  contribute  to  the  decline  of  both 
marriage  and  birth-rates.  In  this  chap- 
ter I  anvnpt  concerned  with  the  discour- 
agements to  race  increase.  I  remark 
elsewhere  on  the  absence  of  national  in- 
spiration to  race  improvement.  I  am 
at  present  concerned  only  with  marriage 
as  the  medium  for  procreation,  no  other 
aspect  of  marriage  is  the  concern  of  Eu- 
genists.  To  encourage  those  marriages 
which  will  tend  to  produce  a  noble  race 
might  well  befit  the  consideration  of  a 
great  people.  The  views  uttered  here, 
while  I  think  they  would  be  largely 
shared  by  Eugenists  as  a  whole,  are 
more  or  less  personal  to  the  writer  who 
40 


MARRIAGE  41 

alone  is  responsible  for  their  statement. 
The  legitimatisation  in  some  way  of  the 
illegitimate  seems  to  me  a  necessary,  ur- 
gent duty  of  the  State.  The  stigma, 
implying  moral  blame  and  sometimes 
meeting  with  actual  ill-treatment  on  that 
1  account,  is  as  unjust  and  undeserved  as 
anything  that  can  be  imagined.  To 
overcome  the  difficulty  by  making  the 
marriage  of  the  parents  the  sole  method 
of  removing  the  reproach  seems  to  me 
asjunjust  as  it  is  illogical.  There  is  no 
sense  in  making  a  child  suffer  unneces- 
sarily. The  absence  of  a  home  with  a 
pair  of  loving  parents  is  often  the 
natural  sufferings  inflicted  on  a  "natural" 
child.  We  ought  not  to  encourage  any 
discrimination  between  the  adopted  and 
the  unadopted  illegitimate  child.  Pub- 
lic opinion  must  learn  to  regard  all 
children  from  the  moment  of  their  birth  ^ 
as  having  an  inherent  right  to  the  best 
possible  welcome  and  the  treatment  best 
fitted  to  make  them  desirable  citizens.1 
Eugenics  studies  the  parents  and  on  oc- 


42         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

casion  challenges  their  right  to  produce 
seed,  and  one  of  its  basic  reasons  for 
doing  so  must  inevitably  be  that  there 
can  be  no  post-natal  challenge  to  the 
child's  right  to  exist. 

Illegitimacy  however  greatly  depre- 
cated morally  has  justified  itself  histor- 
ically. It  has  produced  some  of  earth's 
chosen  heroes.  It  can  be  condemned 
ethically  because  it  so  often  inflicts  hard- 
ship, privation  and  misery  on  the  un- 
happy mother  and  the  innocent  child. 
That  subsequent  marriage  of  the  parents 
should  bring  into  the  family  records  the 
acknowledged  previous  offspring  is  ob- 
vious common  sense,  but  the  child  whose 
father  refuses  to  do  its  mother  the  some- 
times doubtful  "honour"  of  marriage 
should  be  regarded  in  this  respect  as  a 
child  whose  father  is  dead.  As  our 
records  demand  a  name  for  the  father, 
"Anon"  should  serve  where  paternity 
is  doubtful  and  the  real  father's  name 
should  be  acknowledged  in  every  of- 
ficial document  in  every  case  where  pa- 


MARRIAGE  43 

ternity  orders  are  obtained.  In  other 
words  illegitimacy  should  be  abolished 
and,  marriage  or  no  marriage,  every 
child  should  be  duly  entitled  to  every 
right  of  inheritance,  etc.,  which  the  laws 
at  present  confine  to  the  fruit  of  wed- 
lock.  It  is  not  the  form  of  marriage 
or  its  absence  but  thfi_racial  result  with  \ 
which  Eugenics  is  concerned.  Moral- 
ity, religion,  or  the  law  which  holds  so- 
ciety together  may  have  its  reproach,  its 
deprecatory  warnings,  and  even  its  pun- 
ishments for  parents  who  transgress  its 
conventions,  but  humanity  demands  that 
no  stone  shall  be  thrown  at  the  child.  - 1 
Eugenics  is  so  seriously  concerned 
with  the  race  that  it  cannot  accept  the 
pretentious  puerilities  which  so  often 
masquerade  under  the  title  of  marriage- 
law  reforms.  The  mere  refusal  of  a 
marriage  certificate  to  couples  who  can- 
not pass  certain  medical  shibboleths, 
while  their  offspring  is  unconsidered 
(except  in  so  far  as  it  demands  immedi- 
ate public  assistance)  seems  to  be  a 


44         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

mockery  of  a  serious  subject.  Ihe  mar- 
riage of  the  unfit  is  the  concern  of  the 
Eugenists  primarily  because  deception 
on  either  side  may  lead  to  terrible  evil. 
Physical  examinajians  and  medical  cer- 
tificates before  marriage  are  an  urgent 
necessity — not  as  a  bar  to  marriage  but 
as  a  hindrance  to  deceit.  Wives  must 
know  the  man  they  are  marrying.  Men 

of  wife  is 


danger  of  marriage  is  that  a  perfectly 
capable  healthy  person  may  unsuspect- 
ingly marry  an  impotent,  barren  or  de- 
formed consort.  Love  capable  of  con- 
quering a  wholesome  physical  repulsion 
is  one  thing;  love,  blinded  by  custom, 
delivered  bbund  into  the  hands  of  dis- 
ease is  a  vild  thing  incapable  of  defence. 
Partners  for  life  can  even  now  demand 
a  certificate  on  the  portal  of  marriage, 
but  public  opinion  and  legislation  must 
make  such  certificates  an  essential  pre- 
liminary to  the  marriage  contract.  All 
legal  barriers  to  breaking  an  engage- 


MARRIAGE  45 

ment  on  grounds  of  physical  and  mental 
ill-health  must  be  swept  away,  and  the 
enlightened  public  must  be  led  to  learn 
that  some  promises  are  better  broken 
than  kept.  If  these  ante-matrimonial 
•conditions  are  observed  Eugenists  will 
look  with  a  charitable  if  discouraging 
glance  at  marriages  of  the  unfit.  Mar? 
riage  between  two  "unfit"  persons  can 
be  defended  on  very  many  grounds  so 
long  as  children  are  not  born.  It  is, 
generally  speaking,  improbable  that  the 
unfit  at  their  worst  will  either  be  drawn 
to  each  other  or  that  they  will  wish  to 
enter  on  any  career  which  may  tend  to 
deprive  them  of  what  vitality  they  still 
possess.  Most  often  such  unions  would 
be  inevitably  fruitless  whatever  vain  at- 
tempts were  made  to  make  the  dry  bones 
live.  Such  unions  would  in  nearly 
every  instance  simply  mean  that  to  pre- 
vent scandal  a  form  of  marriage  is  gone 
through  and  thereafter  two  weaklings 
give  each  other  the  comfort  of  commu- 
nion; their  common  diet  is  suited  to  their 


46         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

needs,  they  live  (as  far  as  they  can  af- 
ford it)  in  an  atmosphere  adapted  to 
their  complaint.  I  do  not  envy  the  state 
of  soul  of  their  critics  who  would  mar 
the  placid  satisfaction  of  mutual  com- 
fort which  would  solace  their  declining 
childless  days. 

The  union  of  the  fit  and  the  unfit  is  a 
calamity  or  a  catastrophe  in  cases  of 
knowledge,  it  is  a  crime  where  the  vic- 
tim is  deceived  into  ignorance.  The 
union  of  two  unfit  persons  entered  into 
in  complete  knowledge  will  be  an  in- 
finitely smaller  evil. 

To  make  marriage  attractive  we  must 
very  greatly  increase  the  facilities  for 
unmaking  it,  and  we  must  lay  down 
some  general  principles  for  its  healthy 
continuance.  The  absolute  right  of  a 
woman  to  her  own  person,  and  her  pre- 
rogative to  refuse  to  bear  children,  seem 
elementary  conditions  of  civilised  wed- 
lock. Woman  must  be  protected  from 
outrage,  be  she  wife  or  not.  A  married 
woman  must  have  the  same  right  over 


MARRIAGE  47 

her  own  person  and  her  own  children 
that  an  unmarried  woman  has  over 
hers.  It  is  an  unmistakable  slight  on 
marriage  to  compel  a  woman  to  relin- 
quish any  of  the  legal  or  social  rights 
she  would  enjoy  if  unmarried.  We  can- 
not afford  to  throw  these  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  marriage,  we  want  the  best 
women  to  marry  and  not  to  abstain  on 
account  of  the  altogether  unnecessary 
and  unnatural  disabilities  which  laws 
and  men  have  made. 

Eugenists  are  willing  to  concede  that  ; 
divorce  should  be  cheap,  easy  and  free 
from  shameful  scandal.  This  can  only  ' 
be  done  however  without  grave  injustice 
to  women  and  the  race  if,  apart  from  re- 
ligious and  moral  considerations,  the 
family  is  made  the  first  consideration. 
The  problem  is  largely  an  economic  one. 
It  is  not  likely  that  the  State  willingly 
intends  to  take  upon  itself  the  burden 
of  maintaining  thousands  of  wives  un- 
able to  maintain  themselves  discarded 
by  husbands  wealthy  enough  to  incur 


48         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

new  responsibilities  and  expense. 
Whether  marriage  should  be  regarded  as 
giving  a  claim  to  equal  shares  in  the 
property  and  income  of  either  partner 
is  worthy  of  discussion.  It  is  likely 
enough  that  the  thinking  woman  of  the 
present  day  and  her  successors  will  in- 
sist on  wages  for  wives,  wages  for 
motherhood,  and  wages  for  housekeep- 
ing, and  that  these  stipulations  will  re- 
ceive the  sanction  of  State  law  wherever 
they  are  reasonably  scheduled  and  def- 
initely approved.  The  children  of  di- 
vorced parents  occupy  an  onerous  posi- 
tion. Mr.  Henry  James,  in  uWhat 
Maisie  Knew,"  has  touched  convincingly 
on  this  point.  It  cannot  be  dismissed  as 
unimportant  for  there  is  hardly  a  single 
good  environment  in  children's  lives  so 
potent  as  that  of  a  happy  home  in  which 
the  two  parents'  love  for  each  other  is 
only  rivalled  by  their  united  love  for  the 
young  lives  their  love  has  so  miracu- 
lously created.  But  there  is  no  worse 
*  condition  for  children  than  the  home  of 


MARRIAGE  49 

hate.  Divorce  may  be  horrid,  but  the 
atmosphere  of  love  turned  to  indiffer- 
ence and  hate  is  hell  for  all  who 
breathe  there. 

While  marriage  does  not  exhaust  all 
the  possibilities  of  increasing  the  race  it 
may  be  said  to  be  not  only  the  best  but 
the  only  socially  desirable  way.  Pre- 
venting divorce,  or  railing  marriage 
round  with  difficulties  not  only  encour- 
ages illicit  relations  outside  marriage, 
it  inevitably  tends  to  prevent  marriages 
being  as  fecund  as  the  interests  of  the 
race  demands.  There  is  no  need1  to 
sigh  for  a  uniform  marriage-law.  If 
the  ideal  rule  could  be  discovered  it 
would  be  a  pity  not  to  make  it  universal. 
States  which  have  experimented  under 
present  conditions  become  valuable  ex- 
amples or  warnings,  and  the  only  need 
is  that  the  least  enlightened  (or  the 
least  speculative)  State  should  come  into 
line  with  the  most  advanced  without  un- 
due delay.  Fortunately  already  there 
has  been  a  number  of  very  interesting 


,„ 


50         RACE  IMPROVEM 

enterprises  by  individual  States,  and  the 
time  is  ripe  for  the  more  general  adop- 
tion of  those  marriage  laws  which  have 
given  general  satisfaction  where  tried. 

The  "age  of  consent"  and  the  age  of 
marriage  must  be  brought  to  a  common 
minimum.  If  a  girl  is  mature  enough 
for  one  she  is  mature  enough  for  the 
other.  The  condition  of  parental  con- 
sent seems  at  first  glance  an  anachro- 
nism, but  may  have  some  Eugenic  value 
if  modified  to  mean  that  the  age  of  con- 
sent can  be  pre-dated  in  exceptional 
cases. 

No  husband  or  wife  should  be  tied 
for  life  to  a  person  who  develops  symp- 
toms of  such  diseases  as  tuberculosis, 
syphilis,  chronic  alcoholism  and  the  like. 
Felony  and  even  incurable  laziness  or 
incapacity  should  be  good  grounds  for 
divorce.  There  is  no  necessary  con- 
nection between  Socialism  and  Eugenics 
but  neither  is  there  any  essential  antag- 
onism. Eugenics  recognises  the  respon- 
sibilities of  parenthood  and  to  that  ex- 


MARRIAGE  51 

tent  is  individualistic ;  it  claims  also  that 
the  children  born  to  all  men,  rich  or 
poor,  are  bound  to  be  born  as  healthy 
as  advancing  science  can  make  them. 
That  is  why  Eugenics  is  sometimes  re- 
garded as  socialistic,  but  we  have  long 
ago  decided  that  health  is  a  national 
concern  and  therefore  the  State  builds 
hospitals,  passes  sanitary  laws  and  in- 
sists on  the  notification  of  certain  dis- 
eases. In  a  Republic  it  ought  not  to  be 
necessary  to  say  that  classes  should  not 
exist.  At  the  risk  of  accentuating  the 
socialistic  accusation  it  has  to  be  made 
plain  that  matrimonial  selection  must  ig- 
nore distinctions  of  wealth  and  class  and 
creed.  The_fit  must  wed  the  fittest, 
that  Is  the  keynote  of  Eugenics.  Eu- 
genics speaks  with  no  uncertain  voice  on 
the  "Colour  question" — every  race  must 
work  out  its  own  salvation,  and  in  the 
interests  of  each  race  there  must  be  no 
intermarrying.  It  is  a  healthy  and  nat- 
ural objection  which  causes  a  white 
woman  to  shudder  at  the  idea  of  a  mixed 


52         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

marriage.  The  mating  of  a  black 
woman  with  a  white  man  is  seldom  a 
wedding,  it  generally  means  degradation 
to  both  and  excessive  suffering  to  the 
victims — the  woman  and  the  child. 

After  we  have  done  all  we  can  to  make 
marriage  a  more  perfect  institution  we 
are  only  beginning  the  ideal  of  Eugenic 
life.  We  have  to  know  more  than  we 
know  at  present  of  what  characteristics 
are  best  combined  with  what  others,  and 
to  know  which  unions  are  fraught  with 
dangers  both  to  the  partners  and  still 
more  to  the  offspring.  The  old  Stirpi- 
culturists  have  very  much  to  say  on  the 
subject  of  "likes  and  contrasts"  from 
the  days  of  Byrd  Powell  up  till  the  time 
when  scientific  Eugenics  under  Sir  Fran- 
cis Galton  gave  new  light  to  the  study: 
Phrenology,  freed  from  its  showman 
and  charlatan  element,  may  yet  help  us 
in  our  quest.  For  there  is  no  divorce 
law  which  can  ever  cure  the  ills  of  ill- 
assorted  marriage.  Our  ignorance  may 
not  be  criminal,  it  is  nevertheless  deplor- 


MARRIAGE  53 

able.  Science  gathers  increasing  infor- 
mation about  all  other  things  and  we 
spend  our  millions  on  investigating  the 
prevention  of  utilisation  of  waste,  shall 
we  not  hope  that  this  great  institution 
of  marriage  may  too  in  its  turn  be  the 
subject  of  our  scientists',  philosophers' 
and  statisticians'  concern.  Marriage 
has  its  origin  in  the  profoundest  needs 
of  social  man.  The  raison  d'etre  of 
marriage  is  human  happiness  now  and 
in  the  generations  to  follow.  Throw- 
ing legislative  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
marriage  has  never  had  any  effect  except 
the  increase  of  illegitimacy.  The 
scientific  remedy  here  as  elsewhere  is 
enlightenment.  We  have  to  safeguard 
the  race  and  educate  the  present  gener- 
ation. We  cannot  tell  those  who  would 
marry  more  than  we  know  ourselves,  but 
every  ascertained  fact  and  every  reason- 
able probability  about  marriage  should 
be  at  the  disposal  of  every  candidate 
for  the  "holy  order."  The  mere  neces- 
sity of  systematising  our  knowledge 


54         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

ready  for  'distribution  will  be  a  gain,  the 
sum  of  actual  fact  about  the  mating  of 
various  temperaments  and  characteris- 
tics may  be  larger  than  we  think.  Any- 
how it  offers  a  promising  field  of  re- 
search. Eugenics  will  encourage  the 
endowment  of  such  knowledge,  it  will 
seek  subsidies  from  the  State  towards  its 
acquisition,  it  will  strive  to  popularise  it 
in  every  way  until  it  will  be  much  rarer 
than  it  is  to-day  unhappily  to  hear  the 
complaints  "If  youth  but  knew,"  and 
"It  might  have  been." 


CHAPTER    V 

POSSIBILITIES     OF     RACE     IM- 
PROVEMENT 

IT  is  unnecessary  to  argue  the  desira- 
bility of  race  improvement.  It  is  the 
avowed  ultimate  object  of  every  reli- 
gious, moral,  social  and  individual  re- 
form. In  the  light  of  history  we  know 
that  race  improvement  is  possible.  De- 
generation is  the  scientists'  formula  for 
the  theologian's  "fall  from  grace,"  evo- 
lution is  the  Darwinian  phrase  for 

"That  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

The  Eugenist  does  not  say  that  re- 
ligion, morality,  and  education  are  in- 
effective, he  only  claims  that  these  great 
forces  should  apply  to  the  foundations 
of  society  instead  of  being  spent  and 
55 


56         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

dissipated  in  a  thousand  less  important 
directions. 

Eugenics  is  not  a  step  in  the  dark. 
The  theory  is  based  on  observation  and 
its  practice  on  a  selection  of  the  innumer- 
able experiences  of  mankind.  Since 
the  first  man  married  the  first  bride 
mankind  has  been  unconsciously  offering 
an  accumulation  of  experiments  in  im- 
provement, deterioration  and  stagnation 
of  the  race.  It  is  only  inexplicable  ret- 
icence which  has  diverted  man's  study 
from  these  phenomena.  Failure  to  ap- 
preciate relative  values,  the  prejudice 
arising  from  a  debased  or  immature 
morality,  the  bigotry  of  misunderstood 
religion  and  the  dread  of  wounding 
prudish  susceptibilities  have  led  compe- 
tent writers  to  devote  to  pigs  and  sheep 
volumes  which  should  have  had  man  for 
their  subject.  "The  noblest  study  of 
mankind  is  man,"  but  our  naturalists 
have  not  advertised  it  sufficiently. 
Charles  Darwin,  whose  powers  of  mi- 
nute observation  are  admitted  to  have 


RACE  IMPROVEMENT         57 

been  supreme  even  by  those  who  dispute 
his  conclusions,  recognised  the  racial 
bias  against  uthe  noblest  study."  Writ- 
ing to  A.  R.  Wallace  in  1857  he  said: 
"You  ask  whether  I  shall  discuss  'man.' 
I  think  I  shall  avoid  the  subject,  as  so 
surrounded  with  prejudice;  though  I  ad- 
mit it  is  the  highest  and  most  interesting 
problem  for  the  naturalist." 

The  old  attempts  to  divide  mankind 
into  good  and  bad  have  failed  beyond 
recall.  The  first  lesson  we  can  learn 
from  a  study  of  the  past  is  to  recognise 
the  probably  infinite  variety  of  type 
which  exists,  not  only  in  the  attainments, 
but  in  the  potentialities  of  various  types 
of  man  and  woman.  We  no  longer 
wonder  at  differences  of  mentality  when 
we  know  the  variations  in  bodily  form 
and  structure.  We  see  that  some  are 
capable  of  endurance,  some  are  physi- 
cally weak,  some  are  almost  leonine  in 
strength.  Each  variation  in  strength 
may  be  united  with  differing  degrees  of 
other  qualities,  of  sight,  of  motion,  of 


58         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

temperament — there  is  no  end  to  the 
•combinations.  We  are  well  on  the  road 
to  the  elements  of  Eugenics  when  we 
have  grasped  two  facts,  the  analysable 
distinctions  between  individuals,  and  the 
fact  that  broadly  speaking  a  child  is 
endowed  with  its  essential  characteris- 
tics from  birth.  The  qualifications  of 
the  hereditary  principle  need  not  be  set 
forth  here.  Darwin's  theory  is  being 
modified  in  our  day  on  important  but 
not  vital  details.  Eugenics  is  only  in- 
terested in  so  far  as  we  admit  this  broad 
generalisation  to  which  no  scholar  of  to- 
day would  substantially  demur. 

We  cannot  in  every  case  disentangle 
human  characteristics  with  sufficent  pre- 
cision to  warrant  us  in  saying  which  com- 
binations are  desirable  and  which  are 
undesirable.  We  can,  however,  get  into 
our  minds  the  idea  that  one  good  quality 
may  be  happily  supplemented  by  an- 
other, or  that  certain  characteristics 
might  prove  irreconcilable  in  combina- 
tion. For  instance  strong  sexuality  al- 


RACE  IMPROVEMENT         59 

lied  to  moral  responsibility  would  prove 
an  admirable  combination,  but  the 
former  quality  in  conjunction  with  weak 
mentality  would  work  for  certain  ill. 
The  marriage  of  near  relations  has  been 
demonstrated  to  stereotype  existent 
combinations,  the  evil  is  not  as  was  once 
feared  that  the  act  was  in  itself  categor- 
ically immoral  and  therefore  followed 
by  Nature's  punishment.  It  amounted 
to  the  same  thing  in  many  cases  because 
Nature's  law  is  progress  or  retrogres- 
sion; to  stand  still  is  to  stultify  the  law 
of  the  universe.  The  highest  and  no- 
blest physically,  morally  and  mentally  are 
the  most  complicated,  and  there  is  little 
danger  that  they  will  find  their  match 
amongst  those  with  whom  they  are  likely 
to  marry.  The  risk  of  like  marrying 
like  is  more  inherently  probable  amongst 
the  commonplace  and  mediocre.  The 
danger  becomes  a  terrible  one  when  the 
lowest  rung  of  the  ladder  is  reached 
and  it  is  here  that  intermarriage  is  most 
common  if  not  invariable.  The  lowest 


6o         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

degenerates,  the  most  vulgar  criminals 
the  absolute  failures,  the  "creatures  who 
once  were  men"  rarely  have  sexual 
unions  of  any  sort  or  kind  outside  their 
own  degraded  circle.  The  unfit  breed 
|  more  of  their  kind  and  do  not  improve. 
The  commonplace  may  by  happy  chance 
or  on  wise  information  mingle  just  those 
characteristics  which  raise  the  race  to  a 
higher  level.  The  highest  like  those 
in  the  last  category,  may  in  the  next 
generation  lead  to  still  higher  heights  or 
they  may  maintain  their  standard  of  ef- 
ficiency, or  their  caste  may  sink  to  lower 
circles.  In  any  of  these  cases  of  course 
there  is  the  alternative  that  their  race 
may  be  extinguished.  All  this  is  merely 
to  state  the  case  as  it  stands.  There 
are  few  who  dispute  the  facts,  the  Eu- 
genic remedy  is  either  not  appreciated 
or  it  is  ignored.  It  cannot  be  a  subject 
of  indifference  whether  the  best  types  in- 
crease or  the  worst.  It  must  matter 
to  the  race,  it  must  seriously  affect  the 
present  generation,  it  must  be  of  increas- 


RACE  IMPROVEMENT         61 

ing  importance  to  each  generation. 
Cruel,  harsh,  severe,  repressive  laws 
have  been  discarded  as  ineffective  and 
inhuman.  We  cannot  go  back  to  an 
abortive  policy  which  failed  even  a 
Torquemada.  On  the  contrary  we 
have  repressed  natural  checks  to  popu- 
lation and  must  increasingly  continue  to 
do  so  wherever  we  discover  new 
methods  of  foiling  Nature's  indiscrim- 
inate destructiveness.  The  stream  of 
tendency  cannot  be  dammed,  we  must 
adapt  our  social  mill-wheels  to  the  new 
channels  which  the  river  of  time  has  cut 
in  the  fields  of  experience. 

We  must  discard  the  old  unscientific 
view  of  existence  as  an  inexplicable  rid- 
dle, of  marriage  as  a  lucky  bag,  of  crime 
as  a  mere  chance  occurrence,  of  genius 
as  a  "sport,"  of  events  as  casualties  or 
accidents  and  of  goodness  as  accessible 
to  all  and  badness  the  deliberate  choice 
of  the  wilful.  A  few  years  ago  a  well- 
known  publisher  exposed  a  huge  poster 
advertising  his  encyclopaedia.  It  was 


62         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

called  "The  Child;  What  will  he  be- 
come?"  Two  series  of  pictures  were 
given,  the  top  line  indicating  the  gradual 
ascent  of  the  child  fortunate  enough  to 
read  the  encyclopaedia.  By  easy  stages 
he  passed  through  the  Sabbath  school, 
emerged  into  the  business  office  where 
he  accumulated  wealth  and  a  cheerful 
countenance,  he  ascended  into  the  para- 
dise of  benevolent  baldness  and  ap- 
peared in  the  final  picture  a  happy  patri- 
arch breathing  out  blessings  and  prob- 
ably platitudes  at  every  pore.  Con- 
trasted with  these  series,  the  bottom  line 
pictorially  followed  the  awful  fate  of 
the  child  who  did  not  read  this  wonder- 
ful work.  He  deteriorated  rapidly, 
first  a  pickpocket,  then  a  forger,  finally 
a  murderer,  and  a  drunkard  all  the  time. 
This  is  the  classic  exaggeration  of  the 
unscientific  view  actually  held  by  some 
well-meaning  reformers.  And  if  we 
ridicule  this  discredited  theory  of  life 
why  do  we  not  frankly  disavow  the  hope- 
less "reforms"  which  are  the  natural 


RACE  IMPROVEMENT         63 

product  of  this  haphazard  view?  We 
accept  the  doctrine  on  which  Eugenics 
is  based  because  all  the  facts  conform  it, 
but  we  continue  to  spend  our  time  and 
money  on  methods  of  reform  which 
have  lost  their  root  and  now  only  cum- 
ber the  ground. 

The  "points"  of  an  animal  have  for 
ages  been  the  subject  of  the  breeders' 
successful  efforts,  but  they  are  not  more 
certainly  inherited  than  are  the  form  of  a 
man's  head,  his  stature,  the  colour  of 
his  eyes,  and  the  length  of  his  life,  all 
of  which  are  hereditary  like  the  colour 
of  a  horse,  the  scent  of  a  flower  and  the 
shape  of  an  apple.  Naturalists  no 
more  than  farmers  can  with  exactness 
predict  that  173  live  lambs  will  be  born 
on  one  farm,  that  every  flower  of  the 
same  class  will  give  equally  abundant 
perfume,  or  that  every  fruit  on  the 
same  tree  will  weigh  just  the  same  to  an 
ounce.  We  are  still  more  ignorant  or 
at  least  equally  ignorant  about  the  ex- 
act results  in  a  particular  instance  of  the 


64         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

character  of  the  individual  offspring 
even  when  we  are  reasonably  well  ac- 
quainted with  all  its  antecedents.  We 
can  say  with  certainty,  however,  as  Dr. 
Karl  Pearson  says  that  "of  all  the  chil- 
dren of  a  definite  class  of  parents  like 
"A  and  B  we  can  assert  that  a  definite 
"proportion  will  have  a  definite  amount 
"of  any  character  of  A  and  B,  with  a 
"certainty  as  great  as  that  of  any  scien- 
tific prediction  whatever.  I  am  not 
"speaking  from  belief  or  from  theory 
"but  simply  from  facts,  from  thousands 
"of  instances  recorded  by  my  fellow- 
"workers  or  myself.  Here  is  a  great 
"principle  of  life,  something  apparently 
"controlling  all  life  from  its  simplest  to 
"its  most  complex  forms,  and  yet, 
"though  we  too  often  see  its  relentless 
"effects  we  go  on  hoping  that  at  any 
"rate  we  and  our  offspring  shall  be  the 
"exceptions  to  its  rules.  For  one  of  us 
"as  an  individual  this  may  be  true,  but 
"for  the  average  of  us  all,  for  the  nation 
"as  a  whole,  it  is  an  idle  hope.  You 


RACE  IMPROVEMENT         65 


j  "cannot  change  the  leopard's  spots,  and 
"you  cannot  change  bad  stock  to  good; 
;"you  may  dilute  it,  but  until  it  ceases  to 
/"multiply,  it  will  not  cease  to  be." 
(National  Life  from  the  Standpoint  of 
Science.)  The  reformer  sees  in  these 
facts  the  basis  of  his  highest  hopes  as 
certainly  as  he  sees  therein  the  condem- 
nation of  all  attempts  at  reform  which 
ignore  these  bed-rock  truths.  Perma- 
nent maintenance  of  good  standards, 
gradual  elimination  of  the  hopelessly 
bad  stock,  and  experimentation  designed 
to  utilise  all  the  good  elements  on  the 
border  line  between  the  desirable  and 
the  undesired — this  is  the  Eugenist's 
programme  in  the  immediate  present. 
His  ideal  goes  beyond  this  practicable 
programme,  for  the  Eugenist  aims  at 
some  final  justification  of  Nature. 
Without  worshipping  Nature  he  desires 
to  understand  her  processes  and  walk  in 
harmony  with  her  tendencies. 

The  most  potent  of  all  the  beneficent 
influences  in  the  organic  world  has  been 


66         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

the  law  of  Natural  Selection.  By 
"Law"  of  course  we  merely  mean  the 
observed  invariable  sequence  of  events, 
and  whether  or  not  this  universe  has  a 
guiding  Intelligence  behind  it,  the  "sur- 
vival of  the  fittest"  has  taken  its  course 
by  means  of  this  particular  law  or  proc- 
ess. It  is  impossible  to  deny  that  this 
selection  has  more  often  been  instinctive 
than  conscious.  It  is  easy  to  predict 
that  conscious  intelligent  selection  may 
produce  as  real  an  improvement  in  the 
human  race  as  has  been  obtained  in  the 
animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  where 
man  has  so  long  directed  the  survival  of 
the  desired  or  elimination  of  undesired 
"points." 

Patience,  study,  discrimination  and 
courage  are  the  principal  weapons  in  the 
Eugenic  armoury.  With  these  qualities 
assured  Eugenics  may  be  trusted  in  the 
long  run  to  outdistance  all  other  com- 
petitors in  the  field  of  race  improvement. 
Study  is  a  sine  qua  non,  because  Eugenics 
means  Probability  based  on  Experience, 


RACE  IMPROVEMENT        67 

and  the  more  extensive  our  researches 
the  safer  our  generalisations  will  be. 
Patience  is  needed  because  unlike  other  " 
cures  Eugenics  will  help  the  individual 
less  than  it  will  assist  society,  and  it  will 
always  place  the  interests  of  the  racej 
first  and  foremost.  Accordingly  its 
cures  will  not  be  apparent  in  the  current 
generation.  This  may  discourage  the 
unthinking,  it  will  tire  the  hand-to-mouth 
reformer,  the  superficial  will  dismiss  the 
whole  thing  as  useless.  Wisdom  in  dis- 
crimination will  be  essential  because 
sometimes  "the  stone  which  the  builders 
reject"  has  a  way  of  becoming  "the 
headstone  of  the  corner."  But  when 
we  have  ascertained  beyond  reasonable 
doubt  the  qualities  we  want  to  preserve 
and  the  characteristics  we  desire  to  elim- 
inate we  must  be  courageous  in  the  ap- 
plication of  our  remedy. 

We  look  not  only  at  the  worst  but 
also  at  the  best  when  we  ask  ourselves 
can  the  Race  be  improved?     The  high-  , 
est  type  of  man  known  to  men  must  be 


68         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

our  model.  We  must  constantly  and 
actively  believe  that  what  man  has  been 
man  may  be.  If  mankind  be  truly  one 
we  are  linked  to  the  Grants  as  well  as 
to  the  Guiteaus,  to  the  saviours  as  well  as 
to  the  assassins  of  society.  Our  kin- 
ship with  the  lowest  must  make  us  more 
merciful,  our  kinship  with  the  highest 
may  make  us  more  ambitious  to  be  con- 
tented with  nothing  short  of  the  best. 


CHAPTER   VI 

EDUCATION     AND     EUGENICS 

A  HEALTHY  wave  of  reaction  seems  set- 
ting in  against  the  old  ideal  of  "cram- 
ming" which  once  masqueraded  as  educa- 
tion. Already,  signs  are  apparent  that 
in  order  to  have  a  healthy  mind  a 
healthy  body  is  necessary.  A  sentiment . 
in  favour  of  physical  education  is  slowly! 
arising  and  may  some  day  be  translated 
into  statutes  and  administrative  rule. 
At  present  the  sentiment  is  a  vague  one 
and  is  not  wholly  free  from  the  suspicion 
of  ulterior  motives  connected  with  na- 
tional defence.  It  cannot  be  gainsaid 
that  the  army  and  navy  will  gain  in 
strength  and  efficiency  by  the  improve- 
ment of  the  racial  physique  but  the  same 
forces  might  be  equally  increased  by 
some  new  discovery  in  aviation, 
some  new  invention  in  machinery  or 
69 


70         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

some  new  combination  in  explosives  pe- 
culiar to  America.  Methods  of  educa- 
tion must  justify  themselves  first  and  last 
by  their  conformity  to  the  physical, 
and  moral  and  intellectual  needs  of  the 
human  basis  of  society.  They  must 
not  be  devoted  to  the  development  of  a 
healthy  manhood  only,  the  interests  of 
the  race  demand  that  healthy  woman- 
hood shall  be  the  care  of  any  truly  na- 
tional system  of  education.  Until  we 
have  built  up  the  body  we  are  little 
likely  to  succeed  in  creating  a  race  of 
pure-thinking,  pure-living  men  and 
women.  This  is  the  universal  need. 
Higher  education,  the  highest  intellectual 
culture  is  for  the  few,  not  for  the 
wealthy  few — but  for  the  proved  fit,  for 
those  whose  antecedents  and  character 
show  that  their  brain  is  capable  of  re- 
ceiving and  their  powers  are  capable  of 
using  a  fully  developed  education  which 
would  otherwise  be  a  ridiculously  wasted 
acquisition. 

The  intellectual  education  of  the  fu- 


EDUCATION  AND  EUGENICS    71 

ture  will  probably  average  a  higher 
standard  than  at  present  but  we  must 
revise  our  criterion  of  judgment.  We 
must  realise  that  our  current  ideals  tend 
rather  towards  making  a  nation  of  prig- 
gish inefficients  than  of  happy,  healthy 
home  builders. 

If  our  teachers  have  aimed  in  the  past 
at  cramming  comparatively  useless  know- 
ledge into  every  brain  independent  of  in- 
dividual capacity,  it  is  not  strange  that 
our  educational  faults  have  been  to  neg- 
lect the  physical  side  and  to  ignore  the 
vital  teaching  which  might  have  led 
our  scholars  in  the  direction  of  their 
own  physical  development.  These  two 
things  must  inevitably  stand  or  fall  to- 
gether. If  you  neglect  physical  train- 
ing it  will  be  because  you  do  not  realise 
its  importance.  If  you  realise  its  im- 
portance you  will  not  only  devote  your 
principal  educational  efforts  towards  its 
universal  practice  in  the  schools  but  you 
will  see  that  nothing  is  left  undone  to 
induce  the  young  to  adopt  in  the  privacy 


72         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

of  their  own  lives  the  principles  which 
make  for  physical  perfection. 

Heredity  and  environment  alike  teach 
this  lesson.  The  child  is  father  to  the 
man,  the  parents  of  to-morrow  are  now 
being  made.  The  weak  should  learn 
early  their  limitations,  the  strong  should 
be  taught  how  best  to  economise  their 
strength.  No  Eugenist  believes  in  over- 
emphasis of  sexual  knowledge,  but  every 
Eugenist  believes  in  the  absolute  impor- 
tance of  Dearly  familiarity  with  the  es- 
sential information  of  sex-life.  To  em- 
phasise this  knowledge  would  mean  be- 
ing guilty  of  the  same  kind  of  error  as 
is  at  present  prevalent.  A  knowledge 
of  the  laws  of  sex  should  never  be  sepa- 
rated from  other  physiological  and 
moral  education,  its  acquisition  should 
be  gradual,  its  full  meaning  should  be 
so  well  prepared  for  that  its  physical 
manifestations  in  the  youth  of  both  sexes 
would  be  understood,  without  the  neces- 
sity of  a  sudden  jump  from  abysmal  ig- 
norance to  overwhelming  experience. 


EDUCATION  AND  EUGENICS     73 

Co-education,  the  schooling  together/ 
of  boys  and  girls  until  puberty,  is  a  step 
in  the  right  direction.  It  familiarises 
children  with  each  other  in  quite  the  best 
and  most  innocent  manner;  it  is  no  more 
likely  to  create  evil  results  than  the  daily 
life  at  home  of  the  perfect  family  of 
boys  and  girls  meeting  under  the  protec- 
tion of  their  own  parents. 

Co-education  renders  unnecessary  that 
departing  into  separate  schools  which  is 
so  mysterious  in  early  life.  It  aims  at 
giving  girls  the  benefit  of  boys'  play,  en- 
couraging them  in  the  boys'  code  of  hon- 
our, and  tending  to  prepare  them  for 
a  citizenship  they  have  to  share  with 
the  boys  whom  they  may  even  now  re- 
gard as  "chums."  For  boys  the  famil- 
iarity with  girls'  ways  and  girls'  char- 
acteristics will  help  them  to  be  cour- 
teous without  being  weak  and  to 
lose  that  shamefaced  sex-consciousness 
which  is  the  opposite  to  a  healthy 
knowledge  of  the  existence  of  another 
sex. 


74         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

In  the  early  years  of  infancy  only  the 
parents  can  impart  information  about 
sex  to  their  own  offspring,  and  generally 
speaking  only  the  mother  will  be  the  de- 
sirable source  of  information.  This  in 
itself  justifies  the  necessity  of  the  Eu- 
genist  demand  for  educationally  pre- 
paring girls  for  motherhood.  In  the 
nursery  the  time  for  teaching  intimate 
things  may  be  left  to  date  itself.  The 
/  earliest  questions  of  a  child  fix  the  time 
I  when  the  earliest  information  must  be 
given.  When  a  child  asks  questions 
you  either  tell  him  the  truth  or  a  lie. 
The  truth  can  be  told  so  delicately  that 
no  one  need  blush  to  repeat  it.  A  lie 
may  be  directly  more  indelicate  and  in 
its  future  results  may  be  a  source  of 
deadly  demoralisation.  Children  ask 
about  the  "secret"  of  birth  when  a  baby 
brother  or  sister  is  born.  Their  ques- 
tions and  our  answers  are  a  frequent  sub- 
ject for  jest,  when  the  only  reasonable 
excuse  for  our  failure  to  impart  accurate 
knowledge  is  either  our  own  unfitness  to 


EDUCATION  AND  EUGENICS     75 

teach,  or  our  child's  incapacity  to  under- 
stand. If  the  first  is  not  incurable  it 
should  be  the  object  of  immediate  study 
with  a  view  to  reform.  The  incapacity 
of  youthful  intelligence  to  grasp  elemen- 
tary facts  is  greatly  exaggerated,  but 
anyhow  it  is  no  excuse  for  deliberate  de- 
ception. The  immature  mind  can  wait 
for  knowledge,  its  development  need 
not  be  prejudiced  before  it  begins  to 
know  anything.  If  we  cannot  feed  it  on 
facts  at  least  do  not  fill  it  with  false- 
hood. 

On  entering  school  the  children  are 
introduced  to  a  person  whose  profession 
is  to  teach.  How  easy  now  it  would  be 
to  obtain  a  child's  confidence,  how  easy 
to  lead  a  child  to  believe  that  there  is 
no  hidden  knowledge,  no  subject  which 
is  taboo,  no  function  of  a  healthy  body 
which  is  unhealthy,  and  no  process  of 
Nature  which  cannot  be  made  an  inter- 
esting and  helpful  study.  To  impart  an 
unnecessary  sense  of  shame  to  a  child 
is  a  shocking  outrage  from  which  a 


76         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

sensitive  soul  never  recovers.  Excep- 
tional children  will  require  exceptional 
care  but  the  average  child  need  never 
know  from  experience  the  meaning  of 
sexual  shame.  Healthy  boys  and  girls 
will  learn  that  as  their  parents  made 
them  they  will  one  day  themselves 
qualify  for  all  those  joys,  pains,  excite- 
ments and  interests  which  are  so  inti- 
mately wrapt  round  the  functions  of 
parenthood.  To  prepare  boys  and  girls 
to  become  parents  may  seem  a  big  prop- 
osition. I  am  convinced  it  is  prac- 
ticable, desirable  and  in  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  race.  The  human  relation- 
ship, the  human  parentage,  the  human 
processes  should  be  the  foundation  of 
natural  history  lessons.  Botany  and 
biology  should  be  interesting  because  of 
their  relation  to  humanity.  Informa- 
tion about  the  human  processes  of  life 
and  sex  should  not  be  made  contingent 
on  the  possibility  of  divulging  it  in  scat- 
tered fragments  incidental  to  remarks 
on  the  habits  of  polar  bears  or  the  func- 


EDUCATION  AND  EUGENICS     77 

tions  of  the  stamen  and  pollen  of  the 
flower. 

On  this  subject  at  least  there  is  no 
possibility  of  permanent  secrecy.  The 
plan  for  Eugenic  school-teaching  is  only 
a  plea  for  the  wise,  discreet  well-timed 
truth  from  a  capable  and  trusted  source, 
against  indiscreet  and  often  indecently 
ill-timed  half-truth  from  the  worst 
sources.  Children  need  to  be  informed,  \ 
warned  and  helped. 

Why  should  it  be  regarded  as  in- 
decent to  give  kindly  warning  against 
disease?  Children  are  often  over  sensi- 
tive about  fancied  or  discovered  differ- 
ences between  themselves  and  other 
children,  and  about  natural  develop- 
ments or  even  small  defects  which  the 
uninformed  mind  magnifies  into  first- 
class  abnormalities.  They  would  often 
be  reassured  by  learning  of  the  enor- 
mous varieties  which  can  exist  within  the 
average  and  the  normal.  Children 
should  neither  be  frightened  by  the  well- 
meant  exaggerations  which  sometimes 


78         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

are  used  to  warn  children  and  growing 
youth  from  the  very  real  evil  results  of 
self-abuse,  nor  should  such  evils  be  en- 
couraged by  a  prudish  ignoring  of  the 
possible  danger.  Masturbation  can  be 
shown  to  stand  in  the  way  of  all  that 
youth  rightly  values  in  its  present  happy 
school  life  and  play,  it  can  be  proved  to 
prevent  the  accomplishment  of  what 
every  healthy  school  ideal  demands  as 
the  future  functions  of  maturity.  Re- 
straint is  impossible  because  onanism  is 
essentially  a  secret  vice,  and  therefore 
when  these  appeals  to  reason,  idealism, 
self-respect,  and  self-interest  fail  every- 
thing fails.  Fear  is  opposed  to  the  very 
basis  of  school  honour.  If  the  nobler 
motives  are  inadequate  the  physician  is 
required  rather  than  the  teacher,  for 
there  is  a  pathological  reason  for  such 
abnormal  minds.  The  danger  of  con- 
tracting sexual  diseases  must  be  very 
carefully  taught.  The  body  must  be 
saved  but  the  soul  must  not  be  simultan- 
eously lost.  Sexual  disease  problems 


EDUCATION  AND  EUGENICS    79 

must  not  be  mixed  up  with  sexual  mor- 
ality, or  we  shall  pervert  the  noblest 
part  of  youth.  Sexual  disease  should 
be  referred  to,  like  all  other  sexual  ques- 
tions, as  incidental  to  the  whole  subject 
of  the  body  and  its  functions,  abuses  and 
diseases.  The  idea  that  any  disease 
may  justly  be  regarded  as  a  fitting 
"punishment"  for  any  particular  crime, 
is  as  evil  in  its  effect  as  it  is  vicious  in  its 
principle.  To  encourage  the  notifica- 
tion of  every  disease,  especially  the 
worst,  is  a  public  duty  we  can  only  evade 
at  enormous  cost  in  innocent  lives. 
Grappling  with  the  sexual  scourge  called 
syphilis  is  horribly  hindered  by  the  ret- 
icence, concealment  and  shame,  directly 
or  indirectly  to  be  traced  to  a  mistaken 
ethic  about  Nemesis. 

To  prepare  children  for  parenthood 
involves  finding  a  reasonable  regard  for 
fatherhood  as  well  as  for  motherhood. 
No  system  of  economics  that  relegates 
fatherhood  to  unimportance  is  good  for 
the  State.  The  boy  must  learn  that  the 


So        RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

father  has  responsibilities,  different  from 
the  mother's  but  worthy  of  his  own  very 
/best.  Fortunately  the  pages  of  history 
teem  with  illustrations  of  this  theme  for 
those  who  desire  examples  and  warnings 
from  the  past,  it  may  even  be  necessary 
to  point  out  that  the  father's  function 
has  been  over  valued  in  our  annals  as 
compared  with  that  of  the  still  more  im- 
portant but  less  praised  mother.  Inas- 
much, however,  as  the  mother's  function 
is  so  much  more  continuous  than  the 
father's,  the  perpetuation  of  such  degree 
of  perfection  as  a  boy  is  endowed  with 
must  be  secured  by  constant  vigilance, 
lest  he  fail  in  the  one  great  act  which 
earns  the  right  of  giving  his  name  to  his 
offspring. 

The  Eugenic  education  of  girls  is  gen- 
erally easier  than  that  of  boys  for  many 
reasons.  Girls  see  more  than  boys  of 
the  management  of  a  home,  they  are 
used  to  children  younger  than  them- 
selves, they  are  fond  of  babies  and  will 
nurse  dolls  for  an  amusement,  deriving 


EDUCATION  AND  EUGENICS     81 

much  pleasure  from  a  pastime  fraught 
with  Eugenic  suggestiveness.  Later  on 
certain  signs  of  adolescence  precipitate 
explanations  and  stimulate  inquiry. 
There  is  no  need  for  any  restrictions  of 
the  facilities  women  enjoy  educationally. 
As  with  boys  the  best  education  should 
be  given  to  those  girls  who  show  ca- 
pacity for  using  it.  It  has  never  been 
claimed  that  culture  should  be  withheld 
from  a  man,  as  inconsistent  with  father- 
hood ;  motherhood  must  not  be  made  an 
excuse  for  denying  education.  The 
safest  policy  is  to  make  preparations  for_ 
Life  independent  of  preparations/for  a 
Career.  The  don  and  the  bluestocking 
have  to  live,  so  have  the  cowboy  and  the 
cook.  All  must  have  the  universal  ( 
knowledge  whereby  they  may  serve  their 
race  as  healthy  parents  of  healthy  chil- 
dren, even  though  the  college,  the  study, 
the  ranch  and  the  kitchen  have  their  own 
particular  technicalities  to  be  mastered 
by  the  interested  individuals. 

Of  study  in  general  Eugenics  will  find 


82         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

much  to  say.  It  is  impossible  to  neglect 
any  branch  of  knowledge.  The  human 
will  no  less  than  human  necessity  presses 
forward  in  every  direction.  We  may 
be  like  King  Solomon  surrounded  by 
material  wealth  and  possessions,  but, 
like  him,  if  we  are  forced  to  choose  be- 
tween them  and  knowledge,  the  noblest 
thing  within  us  will  cry  for  knowledge. 
We  must  learn  to  discriminate  between 
knowledge-values,  and  endeavour  to 
frame  our  study-time  so  that  even  the 
least  of  us  may  be  encouraged  to  learn 
all  that  we  can.  For  those  who  can 
rapidly  digest  huge  continents  of  study 
the  prizes  of  scholarship  are  assured. 
It  is  not  in  the  interests  of  Eugenics  that 
knowledge  should  be  acquired  with  this 
rapidity  by  those  constitutionally  unfit- 
ted for  the  strain.  An  educational  sys- 
tem devised  for  men  may  not  necessarily 
be  suited  to  women  equally  anxious  to 
know  and  willing  to  give  as  long  a 
period  to  study.  It  may  be  found  prac- 
ticable on  Eugenic  grounds  to  give  more 


EDUCATION  AND  EUGENICS     83 

facilities  than  we  do  for  broken  studies, 
for  studies  which  go  slower  and  last 
longer,  and  for  studies  where  the  hon- 
ours are  not  given  to  those  who  can 
cram  most  in  the  least  time. 

It  is  impossible  for  any  view  of  Eu- 1 
genics  in  relation  to  education  to  ignore 
the  terrible  danger  of  child-labour;} 
Economic  consideration  of  this  subject 
is  common  enough;  it  is  time  that  Eu- 
genics made  its  voice  heard  in  denuncia- 
tion of  a  system  which  cannot  fail  to 
demoralise  the  race  if  persisted  in. 
The  energy  of  a  growing  youth  is  re- 
quired for  building  up  his  own  consti- 
tution, and  if  his  early  labours  are  spent 
in  occupations  inconsistent  with  physical 
development  he  becomes  a  stunted  weak-i 
ling  from  whose  loins  we  cannot  expect 
the  issue  of  a  noble  race.  In  the  case 
of  girl-labour  the  trouble  is  intensified, 
partly  because  the  occupations  of  young 
girls  are  mostly  of  a  description  requir- 
ing a  bodily  posture  which  works  untold 
evil  in  their  future  health  and  fitness. 


84         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

Needlework,  laundry-work  and  typewrit- 
ing are  cases  in  point  Housework, 
with  which  every  young  girl  should  be 
familiar  at  a  reasonably  early  age,  be- 
comes an  intolerable  check  to  womanly 
growth  when  overdone.  Factory  life 
and  "home"  labour  are  equally  objec- 
tionable where  children  are  forced  by 
parental  pressure,  or  the  exigences  of 
economic  circumstance  to  earn  bread 
for  themselves  or  to  contribute  to  the 
family  sustenance. 

I  close  this  chapter  abruptly,  fully 
realising  that  Eugenic  zeal  has  carried 
me  beyond  any  narrow  view  of  elemen- 
tary education,  and  will  inevitably  lead 
the  nation  into  economic  controversy. 
The  history  of  all  reform  encourages  us 
to  persevere.  Neither  fears  of  expense, 
nor  metaphysical  considerations  of  par- 
ental duty,  nor  sentimental  objections  to 
State  intrusion  have  prevented  a  na- 
tion (when  faced  with  a  foreign  foe) 
pledging  all  its  resources,  taking  sons 
from  mothers  and  husbands  from  wives, 


EDUCATION  AND  EUGENICS     85 

and  using  land,  railways  and  stores  to 
prosecute  a  war  deemed  necessary  for 
national  defence.  I  am  convinced  that 
we  have  only  to  realise  the  national 
danger  and  we  shall  heartily  follow  the 
Eugenic  lead,  even  if  it  costs  us  the 
price  of  a  fifth-rate  war. 


CHAPTER    VII 

EUGENICS     AND     THE     MODERN 
FEMINIST     MOVEMENT 

EUGENICS  is  not  essentially  concerned 
with  the  right  to  vote  nor  is  Eugenics 
specially  interested  in  such  abstract  ques- 
tions as  the  relative  voting  qualifications 
of  the  sexes.  If  these  things  really 
weighed  at  all  Eugenics  would  naturally 
favour  fitness  instead  of  sex  as  the  quali- 
fication for  electoral  enfranchisement. 
At  present  Eugenics  views  the  feminist 
movement  from  the  point  of  view  of  po- 
litical power  as  a  means  to  national 
efficiency.  This  standpoint  is  the  more 
natural  because  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  while  the  objective  of  the 
feminist  is  nominally  Votes  for  Women 
it  is  actually  an  assertion  of  woman's  all- 
round  equality  with  men.  I  believe  it 
will  be  a  perilous  enterprise,  fraught 
86 


THE  FEMINIST  MOVEMENT     87 

with  grave  danger  to  the  State  if  women 
successfully  organise  as  a  sex-party,  pre- 
pared to  study  every  question  from  the 
special  interests  or  supposed  interests 
of  women.  However  much  this  definite 
policy  may  be  repudiated  it  is  a  genuine 
danger,  to  which  a  prolonged  suffrage 
agitation  is  bound,  ostensibly  or  unin- 
tentionally, to  contribute.  It  is  to  the 
interest  of  all  who  do  not  take  a  sex- 
party  view  of  citizenship  to  abbreviate 
this  struggle.  It  seems  illogical,  unnat- 
ural and  undesirable  that  there  should 
be  a  sex-basis  of  citizenship  rights. 
All  deprecation  of  anything  even  re- 
motely approaching  a  sex  war  is  an 
argument  for  the  acknowledgment  of 
Women^s  claim  to  electoral  equality 
with  men.  It  is  incredible  that  the  mere 
extension  of  the  franchise  can  create  a 
revolution;  a  revolution  is  historically 
rather  to  be  expected  from  refusing  the 
suffrage  to  a  class  containing  intelligent, 
capable  law-abiding  adults. 

Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves,  however, 


88         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

as  to  the  real  meaning  of  the  claim 
for  women's  electoral  emancipation. 
Whether  that  demand  is  granted  or  not 
the  moral  and  intellectual  driving-force 
of  the  agitation  comes  from  a  genuine 
reforming  spirit,  which  will  succeed  with 
or  without  the  vote  in  elevating  woman 
to  a  position  more  worthy  of  civilisa- 
tion than  she  has  hitherto  occupied.  So 
much  is  certain  to  those  who  recognise 
in  Mrs.  Chapman  Catt,  Dr.  Anna  Shaw 
and  the  English  Suffragettes  the  inspi- 
ration of  Mary  Woolstonecraft,  the 
radical  pioneer  who  first  said  "Woman 
must  be  free."  A  conspiracy  of  men  to 
hinder  women's  emancipation  might  pro- 
voke a  sex-war,  the  granting  of  such 
freedom  as  women  claim  can  only  end  in 
mutual  honour.  Women  will  learn  to 
realise  and  respect  the  differences  be- 
tween men  and  women  when  those  dif- 
ferences do  not  wear  the  unmistakable 
taint  of  inequalities.  The  Eugenists' 
hope  is  for  a  peaceful  solution,  for  the 
peace  of  the  home  is  the  hope  of  the 


THE  FEMINIST  MOVEMENT     89 

child.     The  child  is  apt  to  be  forgotten 
when  men  and  women  quarrel. 

There  are  undoubtedly  many  property 
questions  mixed  up  with  the  electoral 
claim,  and  the  former  have  a  genuine 
Eugenic  side  to  them.  It  is  not  in  the 
interests  of  the  race  that  mothers  should 
be  in  any  doubt  as  to  their  immunity 
from  financial  worry  during  child-birth 
pains,  or  that  they  should  have  to  con- 
sider any  merely  sordid  question  in  de- 
ciding whether  or  not  a  perfectly 
healthy  mother  should  increase  the  na- 
tion's stock  of  perfectly  fit  citizens. 
The  position  of  a  wealthy  man's  wife  in 
the  present  day  is  often  an  anomalous 
one.  Where  the  husband  was  rich  at 
the  time  of  his  wedding,  marriage-con- 
tracts usually  protect  the  wife's  interests 
to  some  extent.  In  the  much  com- 
moner cases  of  gradually  increasing 
wealth,  of  wealth  coming  unexpectedly 
or  as  the  result  of  years  of  protected 
operations,  the  wife  depends  absolutely 
on  her  husband's  good  will.  Often 


90         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

enough  her  exertions  have  helped  to  find 
this  fortune.  Her  influence  on  his  life 
is  frequently  an  indispensable  asset. 
Her  care  of  the  children  she  has  borne 
give  her  a  sentimental  claim  which  jus- 
tice cannot  ignore.  It  is  intolerable 
that  husbands  becoming  rich  men  should 
be  entitled  to  speculate  and  gamble  with 
the  whole  of  what  should  be  considered 
the  joint  capital  of  the  family,  without 
obtaining  the  consent  of  the  actual  work- 
ing partner.  He  should  be  at  liberty 
neither  to  "deal"  unauthorisedly  with 
what  might  be  considered  the  family's 
share  of  his  fortune,  nor  to  alienate  by 
testamentary  legacy  anything  beyond  a 
fair  proportion  away  from  those  who 
have  the  first  claim  upon  his  goods.  In 
order  to  defraud  his  creditors  or  for 
less  criminal  reasons  a  man  has  often 
used  his  wife  as  a  convenient  banker. 
It  will  be  easier  to  check  this  species  of 
cheating  when  the  wife  herself  becomes 
a  creditor. 

In  the  poorest  circles  where  man  and 


THE  FEMINIST  MOVEMENT     91 

woman  are  equally  destitute  of  worldly 
wealth  this  woman's  property  question  is 
too  inseparably  mixed  with  the  whole 
economic  problem  to  be  stated  solely  in 
terms  of  Eugenics.  Eugenics  does  not 
profess  to  point  out  the  lines  on  which 
the  problem  of  poverty  is  to  be  solved. 
Eugenics  only  says  that  certain  condi- 
tions (inconsistent  with  destitution) 
have  to  be  observed  if  we  want  the  race 
to  improve  and  to  save  the  nation  from 
absolute  decay.  It  is  up  to  our  politi- 
cians to  find  the  means  by  which  these 
conditions  can  be  observed.  A  nation 
converted  to  the  gospel  of  Eugenics  will 
not  boggle  at  providing  the  means  for 
saving  itself. 

Middle-class  women  have  a  genuine 
grievance  which  is  becoming  articulate. 
The  women-workers  claim  equal  wages 
for  equal  work,  and  married  women 
claim  wages  for  the  work  they  perform 
as  housekeepers,  nurses  or  cooks,  or  all 
three.  If  there  is  anything  at  all  in  the 
idea  of  attracting  the  best  workers  by 


92         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

high  wages  the  women  will  win.  It  will 
be  a  misfortune  to  Eugenics  if  for  any 
monetary  reason  the  best  women  are  at- 
tracted to  commercial  careers  rather 
than  to  domestic  duties,  but  women- 
workers  will  succeed  by  combination 
while  wives  will  win  only  if  legislation 
favours  them.  Legislation  must  and  will 
be  forthcoming  to  prevent  the  compara- 
tive attractiveness  of  motherhood  from 
sinking  still  lower  in  the  scale  than  at 
present. 

The  most  important  question  which 
many  suffragists  are  preparing  to  face  is 
to  whom  shall  women  look  for  their  sup- 
port. There  is  of  course  for  the  daugh- 
ters of  the  rich  an  inheritance  which 
places  them  above  the  vulgar  struggle 
which  ninety  per  cent,  of  our  women 
have  to  face.  For  this  great  majority 
the  alternatives  to  State-maintenance  are 
generally  speaking  marriage  or  the  la- 
bour-market. There  is  much  to  be  said 
for  the  State-provision  of  maintenance 
for  motherhood,  which  is  elsewhere  re- 


THE  FEMINIST  MOVEMENT    93 

ferred  to.  The  principle  is  neither  new 
nor  revolutionary.  Most  States  make 
some  provision  of  the  kind,  and  this 
State-provision  is  often  excellent  in  effi- 
ciency but  frequently  quite  demoralising 
in  the  restrictions  with  which  it  is 
hedged.  Obviously  with  no  Eugenic 
inspiration  State-helps  of  the  kind  can 
never  be  anything  but  a  stop-gap  which 
self-respecting  women  will  not  seek  vol- 
untarily and  which  will  always  be  given 
grudgingly.  Its  conditions  will  no 
longer  degrade  but  will  tend  towards 
race  improvement  by  encouraging  the 
fit  and  warning  the  weak  and  diseased. 
For  this  double  purpose  the  State  will 
employ  ladies  to  visit  poor  mothers  so 
as  to  make  sure  that  at  least  no  mother 
shall  want  for  food,  shelter  and  the 
best  medical  attention,  while  she  is  as- 
sisting in  what  will  be  universally  re- 
garded as  the  highest  and  best  interests 
of  the  nation.  If  State-subventions  of 
this  kind  are  beset  with  restrictions,  what 
are  we  to  say  to  "charitable"  enter- 


94         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

prises.  Some  few  are  ideal  institutions, 
the  vast  majority  are  only  justifying 
their  existence  by  doing  badly  what 
would  be  otherwise  left  undone.  Some 
exist  merely  because  medical  students 
must  have  some  experience  of  maternity 
cases,  sometimes  the  accommodation  for 
mothers  is  so  scanty  compared  with  the 
number  of  students  that  many  score  of 
students  attend  a  single  mother,  whose 
experience  in  such  a  case  is  not  an  envi- 
able one. 

Neither  charity  nor  the  present 
limited  State-aid  touch  the  larger 
question.  It  would  almost  seem  as  if 
the  State  and  the  charities  had  a  grudge 
against  motherhood.  It  is  as  if  some 
monstrous  misunderstanding  of  Mal- 
thusianism  had  led  these  authorities  to 
believe  that  the  interests  of  the  race 
demanded  the  accentuation  of  the  primal 
course.  uln  sorrow,"  indeed,  do  the 
poor  "bring  forth  children. "  There  is 
a  prejudice  too  against  the  noblest  emo- 
tions of  motherhood.  Cases  are  com- 


THE  FEMINIST  MOVEMENT    95 

mon  where  the  relieving  authorities, 
public  or  voluntary,  faced  with  the  ab- 
solute inability  of  a  parent  to  contribute 
towards  a  child's  keep,  undertake  the 
child's  care  under  conditions  which  ex- 
clude the  parents'  continued  interest  in 
the  child's  welfare.  A  mother  un- 
expectedly widowed  is  "relieved"  of  her 
four  young  children  who  are  sent  some- 
times to  different  orphanages,  often  at  a 
distance  from  the  mother  who  loves 
them  and  who  would  be  their  very  best 
guardian.  She  has  to  find  work 
amongst  strangers  to  support  herself, 
while  losing  money  every  "visiting  day" 
if  she  can  anyway  get  to  see  her  chil- 
dren, whose  aggregate  keep  costs  actu- 
ally more  than  would  comfortably  main- 
tain them  and  their  mother  under  ideal 
conditions.  It  is  this  almost  fiendish 
masculine  administration  of  the  ma- 
ternal functions  of  the  public  authorities 
which  women  most  vehemently  protest 
against.  There  seems  no  remedy  for 
it  except  a  recognition  that  a  man  can- 


96         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

not  be  a  mother,  not  even  a  step-mother. 
Apart  from  the  maternal  side  of 
woman's  life  there  is  her  individual  life 
to  consider,  and  while  this  is  of  enor- 
mous importance  to  herself  its  chief  in- 
terest to  Eugenists  (as  such)  is  that 
only  out  of  healthy  and  happy  conditions 
of  womanhood  can  a  noble  motherhood 
be  expected  to  grow.  Slave-mothers  are 
apt  to  breed  slave-children,  and  still 
worse  for  the  race  slave-women  are  dis- 
inclined to  become  mothers.  It  is  of 
course  unfair  to  see  no  distinction  be- 
tween slavery  which  professes  no  fine 
sentiment  towards  its  chattel  objects, 
and  the  refined  system  which  places 
woman  on  a  pedestal  and  worships  her 
but  denies  her  the  elementary  rights  of 
citizenship.  The  Eugenist  ideal  of  mar- 
riage is  the  union  of  equality,  two  citi- 
zens joining  together  in  love  and  wis- 
dom and  with  such  sanction  of  the  State 
and  the  Church  as  may  be,  with  resul- 
tant harmony  of  life  and  its  fruit  in  an 
increase  of  the  truest  wealth  any  State 


THE  FEMINIST  MOVEMENT    97 

can  possess,  namely  well-conceived,  well- 
formed,  and  well-matured  men  and 
women. 

In  the  Eugenist  State  there  will  be  a 
determined  enmity  to  the  increased  gen- 
erations of  the  criminal,  the  weak- 
minded  and  the  diseased.  But  if  re- 
form is  forced  on  women  by  men,  in- 
stead of  being  the  spontaneous  decision 
of  a  genuine  democracy,  the  grossest 
tyranny  will  be  perpetuated  (however 
wise  its  object,  humane  its  methods  and 
Eugenic  its  result) .  A  benevolent  des- 
potism might  be  endured  in  its  disposi- 
tion of  the  issues  of  war,  the  production 
of  wealth,  or  the  distribution  of  hon- 
ours, nothing  but  the  sovereign  will 
of  the  people  can  be  tolerated  in  the 
Eugenic  field,  and  here  if  nowhere  else 
woman  being  essentially  concerned  must 
have  an  equal  voice  with  man.  Where 
women  cannot  be  convinced  that  Eu- 
genic reform  is  in  the  interests  of  the 
race  we  must  trust  to  personal  persua- 
sion, individual  example  and  such  pub- 


98         RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

lie  opinion  as  we  are  capable  of  influenc- 
ing. The  powers  of  the  State  must  not 
be  invoked  in  the  face  of  popular  pro- 
test, it  will  be  to  the  interests  of  Eu- 
genists  that  such  protest  shall  be  able  to 
express  itself  in  the  ballot-box  instead  of 
by  surreptitious  evasion  or  mob-law. 

The  double  standard  in  morals  must 
go.  Whatever  our  standard  may  be 
it  must  be  colour-blind  as  regards  sex. 
The  modern  feminist  movement  is  in 
harmony  with  Eugenic  science,  in  insist- 
ing on  this  point  being  made  clear.  For 
ages  past  masculine  hypocrisy  has  been 
able  to  exact  from  the  opposite  sex  a 
crushing  worship  of  Mrs.  Grundy,  by 
the  simple  expedient  of  ruling  men  out 
of  the  conventions  they  dictated  to 
women. 

The  time  has  come  for  a  candid  re- 
consideration of  moral  problems  on  the 
basis  of  sex-equality.  It  may  be  that 
some  fine  sentiments  will  vanish,  per- 
haps women  will  descend  from  the  dizzy 
height  where  they  are  supposed  to  dwell. 


THE  FEMINIST  MOVEMENT    99 

Truth  at  least  will  gain,  pretence  will 
give  place  to  reality  and  we  shall  be 
capable  of  postulating  a  new  and  better 
morality  based  on  the  essential  facts  of 
life.  To  the  consideration  of  the  best 
possible  life  for  men  and  women  must 
be  added  the  Eugenic  claims  of  the  race. 
We  live  and  die  but  the  race  continues, 
heirs  of  our  perfection,  inheritors  of  our 
defects.  We  pass,  but  we  must  think 
of  those  to  whom  this  heritage  passes. 
The  strong  woman  mated  to  the  strong 
man  is  proud  of  a  posterity  which  will 
do  them  honour.  The  woman-move- 
ment aims  at  removing  the  obstacles  to 
this  endeavour.  The  tragedy  of  the 
woman's  life  is  when  either  her  own  or 
her  husband's  unfitness  to  bear  anything 
but  a  tainted  stock  is  disregarded  b)l 
law,  custom  and  the  brutality  of  lustfuji 
bestiality.  She  who  might  be,  as  she 
desires  to  be,  the  guardian  of  the  na- 
tion's truest  interests,  is  overpowered 
and  compelled  to  be  the  medium  of  na- 
tional pollution.  This  knowledge 


ioo       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

strengthens  the  women's  agitation;  the 
determination  to  end  such  a  shameful 
degradation  makes  the  women's  move- 
ment irresistible. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

POSITIVE     AND     NEGATIVE 
EUGENICS 

THIS  little  volume  would  sadly  fail  to 
convey  its  author's  meaning  if  dogma- 
tism stood  in  the  way  of  persuasion,  or 
authority  seemed  to  be  claimed  for  the 
tentative    suggestions    herein    outlined. 
There  is  no  immediate  danger  that  Eu-; 
genie  principles  will  suddenly  rush  so- 
ciety into  extreme  action.     The  proba- 
bilities are  quite  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion.    We  shall   continue  to  see  what 
has  always  been  observed  by  thinkers, 
namely,  "Decency  and  custom  starving  \ 
truth,  and  blind  authority  beating  with 
his  staff  the  child  which  might  have  led 
him."     Valuable    experiments    are    de-  / 
layed  by  prejudice,  and  Eugenists  have  * 
only  too  good  ground  for  complaint  that 
the  scientific  spirit  is  thwarted  by  preju- 
101 


102       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

diced  opposition  to  new  ideas*  The 
very  absence  of  dogmatism  which  char- 
acterises the  genuine  thinker  serves  as 
the  basis  of  opposition  in  his  experi- 
ments. Because  he  does  not  glibly 
guarantee  universal  success  like  a  patent- 
pill  advertiser  nothing  whatever  is  done 
to  obtain  a  criterion  of  judging  how  far 
his  reasonable  proposals  can  succeed. 
The  failure  of  all  other  attempts  to  im- 
]  prove  the  race  may  force  upon  the  pub- 
/  lie  the  necessity  of  Eugenic  experiments. 
As  has  been  said  more  than  once,  philan- 
\  thropy  has  failed,  politics  has  failed, 
rescue  work  has  failed,  perhaps 
Eugenics  may  not  fail,  for  it  is 
based  on  the  impregnable  rock  of 
science,  it  proceeds  on  the x  sound  lines 
of  prevention,  it  aims  to  start  at  the  be- 
ginning  of  things,  to  build  up  a  new  race 
if  not  of  supermen  at  least  of  sound 
healthy  human  beings. 

The  lethal  chamber  is  not  a  Eugenic 
remedy.  It  is  the  last  heart-broken  de- 
spairing cry  of  the  old  unscientific  system. 


POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE     103 

It  is  the  only  final  alternative  to  Eu- 
genics. It  means  that  man  has  failed./ 
It  has  neither  sense,  sentiment,  nor  sci- 
ence for  its  justification.  It  substitutes  ( 
murder  for  moral  method.  Eugenics 
on  the  other  hand  starts  out  with  the 
principle  that  there  is  nothing  so  sacred/ 
as  life.  That  the  lethal  chamber  fori 
the  aged,  diseased,  infirm,  and  unfit  is 
barbarous  and  immoral,  that  it  is  ut- 
terly indefensible,  and  would  be  abso- 
lutely ineffective  if  not  ridiculously  im- 
practicable. There  is  not  much  need  to 
waste  further  consideration  on  a  proj- 
ect from  which  every  healthy  citizen 
naturally  revolts.  It  has  to  be  categori- 
cally repudiated  lest  it  should  be  mis- 
takenly regarded  as  a  Eugenic  proposal. 
Abortion  and  infanticide  are  equally/ 
condemned  by  Eugenists,  although  ort 
different  grounds.  Infanticide  is  murJ 
der?  It  destroys  the  life  of  an  actual 
human  being.  Infanticide,  though 
doubtless  less  reprehensible  in  degree 
than  the  lethal  chamber. idea,  is  in  prin- 


104       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

ciple  indistinguishable  therefrom.  It  is 
the  antithesis  to  the  idea  of  Eugenics. 
The  state  which  can  contemplate  child- 
murder  without  horror  is  far  indeed 
from  being  a  humane  State.  Sensitive- 
ness to  suffering  is  a  sign  of  civilisation. 
Wherever  we  find  a  live  human  being, 
however  hopeless  its  condition  may  ap- 
pear, universal  experience  has  shown  us 
that  man's  advance  from  savagedom  de- 
pends on  his  using  all  his  resources  to 
save  the  final  spark  of  life  which  remains. 
"While  there's  life  there's  hope"  is  a 
maxim  which  is  based  on  the  greatest 
need  of  mankind.  Eugenics  deplores 
waste  of  effort  that  this  entails,  but  there 
can  be  no  doubt  about  its  Tightness  or 
its  justification  fyy  the  universal  consen- 
sus of  progressive  races.  Abortion 
may  be  condemned  on  religious  and 
moral  grounds,  but  the  overwhelming 
weight  of  medical  opinion  against  it  is 
based  on  physiological  reasons.  No 
woman  can  be  guilty  of  this  practice 
without  the  greatest  risks  of  physical 


POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE     105 

damage.  She  jeopardises  her  life  im- 
mediately and  she  generally  deteriorates 
her  capacity  for  future  usefulness.  Eu- 
genics will  find  a  sphere  of  usefulness 
in  the  spread  of  this  piece  of  saving 
knowledge.  Unmarried  mothers  and 
mothers  in  all  spheres  of  society  are  ter- 
ribly ignorant  of  the  dangers  of  this 
common  death-trap.  The  mere  fact  [ 
that  the  sale  and  procuration  of  drugs 
and  use  of  means  for  purposes  of  abor- 
tion are  criminal  acts  is  not  sufficient. 
The  idea  is  prevalent  that  it  is  only  the 
police  who  have  to  be  evaded.  Our 
laws  are  not  empiric,  but  their  reason 
is  seldom  apparent  to  those  who  are  ex- 
pected to  obey  them.  A  few  drugs,  or 
a  few  pills — how  easy  it  all  seems — and 
how  fatal.  Eugenists  do  not  want  the 
law  altered,  but  they  want  the  added  de- 
terrent of  reason.  There  may  be  a 
chance  of  evaHmglthe  law,  there  is  none 
of  evading  the  bodily  injury  which  in-  / 
evitably  accompanies  abortion. 

I  have  already  shown  that  Malthu- 


io6       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

sian  arguments  do  not  appeal  to  Eugen- 
ists.  This  is  not  to  say  that  Malthu- 
sian  methods  are  also  condemned.  Mal- 
thusian  prognostications  have  not  been 
fulfilled,  its  statistics  have  been  super- 
seded, and  its  conclusions  modified  by 
the  process  of  the  suns.  The  world 
does  not  contain  too  many  people,  it 
only  contains  too  many  of  the  wrong 
sort  of  people.  Production  has  not  only 
kept  pace  with  population,  it  has  raced 
it.  Intensive  cultivation,  new  treat- 
ments of  the  soil,  scientific  rotation  of 
crops  and  scientific  agriculture  render- 
ing rotation  unnecessary,  new  economic 
inducements  to  cultivate  hitherto  waste 
lands,  discoveries  and  inventions  of  all 
kinds  have  taken  away  from  Malthu- 
sianism  the  unduly  pessimistic  philoso- 
phy with  which  it  once  tried  to  frighten 
the  race.  Malthusianism  will  always 
be  remembered  with  gratitude,  however, 
for  its  practical  methods  and  for  its  re- 
\  f^iQSL_t2_?onfuse  marriage  with  pro- 
creation. That  distinction  still  needs  to 


POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE     107 

be  borne  in  mind  because  otherwise  half 
our  Eugenic  efforts  will  be  wasted  by 
directing  ourselves  to  a  problem  which 
does  not  exist.  It  is  impossible  to  as-  i 
sail  the  proposition  that  a  moral  mar- 
ried life  is  consistent  with  a  prudential 
check  on  increased  population.  This 
prudential  check  need  not  necessarily  be 
a  material  one.  Even  a  Tolstoyan  may 
be  a  married  man.  Abstinence  in  due 
season  in  the  case  of  normal  adults  is  or 
may  be  Nature's  plan  for  increasing 
virility  at  other  seasons.  The  most  pro- 
lific parents  may  be  pardoned  for  rest- 
ing occasionally  from  their  protracted 
persistency  of  race-production.  Eugen- 
ists  object  to  weakening  virility  by  sac- 
rificing fitness  for  mere  numbers,  but  it 
is  in  the  essence  of  their  demand  that 
the  race  shall,  "increase  and  multiply 
and  replenish  the  earth."  The  objec- 
tion (which  Eugenists  share  with  the 
majority  of  the  American  public)  to 
anything  remotely  resembling  infanti- 
cide must  have  some  definite  proof 


io8       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

of  its  sincerity.  Eugenists  denounce  the 
New  Decalogue  of  current  morality 
which  says: 

"Thou  shalt  not  kill, — but  needs  not  strive 
Officiously  to  keep  alive." 

The  Eugenist  does  not  desire  to  detract 
from  the  responsibility  of  parenthood, 
but  rather  to  increase  it.  On  the  other 
hand  whatever  steps  may  be  taken 
against  neglectful,  vicious  or  imnajural 
parents,  the  race  interests  demand  that 
the  child  shall  not  suffer.  A  new  re- 
sponsibility must  be  added  to  parentage 
— the  parent  of  the  race  is  the  State, 
which  must  be  vigilant  to  protect  the 
child  from  the  faults  and  follies  of  fa- 
thers who  fail  in  their  most  essential 
I  duties.  A  child  should  be  guaranteed 
loving  parents  or  failing  these  a  never 
failing  foster-parent,  in  a  paternal  State. 
In  the  recognition  of  its  duties  as 
Step-mother,  the  State  will  in  self-de- 
fence protect  its  maternal  arms  from  the 
influx  of  undesirables.  The  universal 


POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE     109 

endowment  of  Motherhood  may  be  a 
socialist  dream  rather  than  a  Eugenic 
practical  propqsal,  but  even  the  Eugen- 
ists'  demand  for  the  State  to  act  as  step- 
mother involves  an  expenditure  which 
will  probably  amount  to  the  cost  of  a 
national  war.  It  is  part  of  our  case 
that  the  money  spent  is  an  investment 
certain  to  pay  big  dividends  in  the  shape 
of  increased  national  efficiency.  It  is 
in  any  case  inevitable.  Public  sentiment 
cannot  tolerate  this  idiotic  waste  of  the 
noblest  of  all  raw  material.  It  will  be 
not  the  least  of  its  advantages  that  the 
'State  will  at  length  be  directly  inter- 
ested, financially  and  therefore  most 
deeply,  in  stopping  the  supply  of  the  un- 
fit— a  bad  investment  at  the  best,  re- 
quiring a  maximum  of  trouble,  and  a 
continuous  source  of  damage.  The  . 
s.terilisationj}f  the  unfit  has  become  a  i 
regular*  experience  in  a  number  of  States^/ 
It  has  outlived  its  detractors  wherever 
it  has  been  practised.  It  remains  nec- 
essary now  only  to  convert  its  objectors 


no       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

in  other  States,  and  to  gradually  extend 
its  beneficent  operation  and  the  sphere 
of  its  activities.  Naturally  it  begins 
with  the  habitual  criminal.  Of  abso- 
lute success  in  the  States  where  it  has 
been  tried  it  will  be  far  more  effective 
when  it  is  applied  in  the  more  populous 
centres  and  when  it  becomes  impossible 
for  the  permanently  criminal  to  escape 
its  attention.  Sterilisation  as  now  rec- 
ommended and  performed  by  our  high- 
est scientific  authorities  is  in  no  sense 
cruel,  it  is  not  even  painful.  It  must 
not  be  confounded  with  the  mutilations 
of  earlier  centuries,  it  leaves  the  person 
operated  on  possessed  of  every  faculty 
for  use  and  capacity  for  happiness,  it 

\only  takes  away  the  power  of  reproduc- 
tion. The  first  extension  of  the  plan 
has  been  to  the  certified  hopeless  idiot. 
These  two  classes  and  the  inmates  of 
homes  for  incurable  drunkards  represent 
a  very  easy  definition  of  those  who 
should  be  treated  to  this  operation.  In 
the  case  of  the  criminal  it  will  enable 


POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE     in 

very  great  mercy  to  be  extended.     Steri- 
lisation will  not  be  a  mere  added  inflic- 
tion of  a  degrading  punishment,  it  will , 
substitute  an  awful  warning  for  a  long 
imprisonment.     Only     those     criminals 
will   be   sterilised  whose   chronic  crim-  / 
jflality  is  proved  after  repeated  convic-/ 
tions  and  form  a  study  of  what  facts  are 
ascertainable  as  to  their  hereditary  his- 
tory.    They  will  leave  the  jail  knowing 
that  society  regards  them  as  unworthy 
to  be  parents,  or  if  they  themselves  are 
also  too  dangerous  to  be  let  at  large 
their  close   confinement  will  be   rarely 
necessary. 

The  Eugenist  does  not  propose  to  ex- 
tend the  operation  of  sterilisation  be- 
yond the  classes  above  mentioned.  It 
does  not,  however,  regard  these  as  ex- 
hausting the  categories  of  undesirable 
procreators.  Already  there  are  numer- 
ous suffering  and  semi-cured  adults 
whose  children  would  inherit  the  dis- 
eases, weaknesses,  and  evil  tendencies 
of  their  ancestors.  Tuberculosis,  syphi- 


ii2       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

lis  and  St.  Vitus's  Dance  sufferers  are 
specimens  of  this  class.  As  Eugenics 
advances  we  may  learn  more  of  the  ra- 
cial poisons,  and  a  scientific  black-list 
may  be  drawn  up  of  those  hereditary 
taints  which  inflict  most  harm  on  the 
community.  Doctors  should  have  to 
notify  the  authorities  of  these  diseases 
and  the  patient  should  be  encouraged  to 
frankness  and  helped  to  a  cure.  In  all 
such  cases  kind  but  firm  warning  must 
be  given  against  procreation.  The 
failure  to  heed  such  warning  should  in- 
evitably result  in  imprisonment— a  very 
short  term  will  suffice,  for  with  Eugenics 
established  as  a  rule  of  society,  the  State 
could  afford  to  be  patient.  The  elimi- 
nation of  the  unfit  would  make  rapid 
strides,  and  the  offspring  of  tainted  par- 
ents evading  the  law  in  one  generation 
would  be  less  and  less  likely  to  escape  in 
the  next  generation. 

It  may  be  that  the  State  will  be  con- 
tented with  the  negative  side  of  Eugen- 
ics. It  may  be  that  it  is  the  more  im- 


POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE     113 

portant  because  we  are  daily  increasing 
the  elements  which  if  not  checked  will 
destroy  our  civilisation.  Negative  Eu- 
genics is  as  imperative  a  necessity  as  the 
protection  of  our  coasts  from  invasion 
or  the  destruction  of  potato  blight. 

Positive  Eugenics  represents  the  at- 
tempt to  encourage  breeding  from  every 
healthy  stock.  Its  methods  will  vary 
with  the  views  of  society  from  time  to 
time.  Its  machinery  will  be  by  State- 
interference  or  by  private  experimental 
enterprise  according  as  socialist  or  indi- 
vidualist ideals  are  current.  I  do  not 
wish  to  commit  Eugenists  who  are  by 
no  means  agreed  on  this  point,  but  my 
personal  view  is  that  individual  experi- 
ments cannot  possibly  go  far  beyond 
public  opinion,  whereas,  "the  State  can  \ 
do  no  wrong"  if  it  endows,  undertakes 
and  is  responsible  for  experiments  lim- 
ited in  extent  but  far  reaching  in  princi- 
ple, so  long  as  such  experiments  are 
based  on  scientific  probabilities  and  are 
supported  by  enlightened  competent 


U4       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

judges  and  do  not  outrage  the  humane 
sentiment  of  the  race.  Drastic  indi- 
vidual experiments,  involving  however 
few  people,  will  always  be  subject  to 
interference  at  critical  moments  by 
mobs,  governments,  vigilance  societies, 
etc.  It  is  not  wise  to  ignore  this  factor; 
it  is  not  necessary  even  to  deprecate  it; 
nay,  it  has  its  advantages.  The  omnip- 
otence of  the  State  rests  not  merely  in 
its  power  of  arms;  a  State  experiment, 
even  though  not  initiated  by  the  people, 
can  be  stopped  by  the  people.  The 
electors'  power  ultimately  to  interfere 
makes  for  tolerance. 

While  drastic  experiments  must  be 
left  to  democracy  acting  through  its 
elected  governors,  there  is  ample  scope 
for  other  features  of  positive  Eugenics. 
One  of  these  is  the  endowment  of  wor- 
thy young  couples  too  poor  otherwise 
to  marry.  The  ideal  of  celibacy  stands 
self-condemned.  Where  successful  it 
means  race-suicide,  where  unsuccessful  it 
means  hypocrisy  and  a  thousand  other 


POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE     115 

horrors.  What  then  can  we  think  of 
the  fact  that  millions  of  dollars  have 
been  spent  in  endowing  monasteries, 
nunneries,  brotherhoods  and  all  the 
other  ancient  and  modern  forms  of  celi- 
bate stultification  of  probably  perfectly 
potential  parents.  Add  to  these  mil- 
lions the  other  millions  spent  in  endow- 
ing the  worst  and  least  capable  in  pris- 
ons, asylums  and  in  often  demoralising 
charities.  Then  bear  in  mind  that  the 
endowment  of  the  healthy  for  Eugenic 
purposes,  for  the  regeneration  of  man- 
kind, is  absolutely  unknown.  A  million- 
aire who  loves  his  kind  could  scarcely 
do  better  with  his  money  than  the  estab- 
lishment, under  proper  supervision,  of 
a  fund  which  would  encourage  human 
efficiency.  There  is  no  fame  so  lasting 
as  the  glory  which  would  attach  to  such 
a  fund.  It  would  be  greater  than  a  No- 
bel name,  its  prizes  would  be  more 
keenly  competed  for  than  for  "Mara- 
thon" or  "America"  cups.  Its  winners 
would  become  a  new  aristocracy,  and 


u6       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world  noble  families  would  be  founded 
on  a  blending  of  ancestral  and  personal 
merit,  aristocratic,  indeed,  because  the 
best  become  personally  powerful,  but  ab- 
solutely democratic  in  that  neither  class, 
caste  nor  creed  are  allowed  to  count  in 
the  selection.  From  this  aristocracy  a 
new  knighthood  might  be  formed.  De- 
generation would  mean  exclusion.  Im- 
provement would  mean  increased  hon- 
ours. New  standards  of  efficiency,  men- 
tal, moral  and  physical,  would  be  evolved 
for  the  guidance  of  the  race.  An 
American  model  of  this  kind  would 
speedily  find  imitators  abroad.  The 
real  struggle  for  race  supremacy  would 
be  concentrated  on  the  Eugenic  groups. 
Competitions,  challenges  and  contests 
between  national  groups  might  eclipse  in 
interest  all  the  other  exhibits  in  future 
International  Expositions. 

The  daily  work  of  Eugenic  education 
is  independent  of  these  short  cuts  to  the 
Eugenics  millennium.  The  dissemina- 


POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE     117 

tion  of  ascertained  facts  about  heredity 
is  urgently  necessary.  It  may  be  news 
to  many  that  there  are  hundreds  of  in- 
stitutions throughout  our  land  where  ac- 
curate information  has  been  carefully 
collected  for  many  years.  The  antece- 
dents of  inmates  of  prisons,  asylums  and 
"homes"  have  been  patiently  scheduled, 
classified  and  studied.  Only  money  and 
public  interest  are  wanted  to  make  this 
vital  information  known.  Investiga- 
tions of  this  kind  need  also  to  be  made 
universal.  It  is  not  enough  that  insti- 
tutions should  relieve  the  present  suf- 
ferers. They  can  only  justify  their  ex- 
istence by  contributing  to  our  desire  for 
the  eradication  of  suffering.  It  should 
be  made  a  condition  of  public  support 
that  the  most  useful  kind  of  inquiries 
should  be  made,  and  be  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  all  who  are  interested.  It 
is  useless  throwing  pages  of  undigested 
statistics  at  the  public,  this  is  mere  waste 
of  effort.  With  the  facts  and  figures  in 
existence  and  accessible,  centres  of  sci- 


v 

n8       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

entific  study  such  as  a  Eugenics  labora- 
tory should  be,  will  be  able  to  present 
to  the  public  the  living  issues  which 
those  dead  figures  mean.  It  would, 
however,  be  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Eu- 
genics to  confine  attention  to  the  sadder 
side  of  statistics.  It  is  of  infinite  im- 
portance that  we  should  understand  and 
cultivate  fitness,  and  therefore  we  want 
the  systematic  collection  of  family  his- 
tories relating  to  our  noblest,  best  and 
worthiest.  Here  State  interference  is 
out  of  place.  Voluntary  work  on  the 
part  of  enthusiastic  Eugenists  would 
soon  succeed  in  obtaining  information 
of  great  value.  Few  families  would  re- 
fuse to  impart  through  private  channels 
ancestral  facts,  particularly  as  the  mere 
inquiry  would  imply  a  compliment. 
The  Chinese  worship  of  ancestors  would 
have  a  modern  scientific  interpretation, 
in  the  honour  which  would  be  won  by 
the  founders  of  fine  families,  a  study  of 
whose  history  would  be  an  inspiration 
and  a  help  to  the  race. 


POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE     119 

The  advocates  of  Eugenics  are  pre- 
pared for  small  beginnings  but  they 
have  enormous  faith  in  its  future. 
There  is  no  desire  and  no  need  to  ex- 
aggerate the  present  tentative  claims. 
To  the  many  it  is  still  necessary  to  ask 
for  the  intellectual  hospitality  of  impar- 
tial consideration.  Even  to  the  con- 
vinced we  only  appeal  for  judicious  ex- 
periment. To  the  religious  our  work 
comes  as  a  harmonious  exercise  of  the 
best  with  which  the  Eternal  Will  of  the 
Universe  has  endowed  us. 

To  the  evolutionist  Eugenics  repre- 
sents the  study  and  expression  of  Na- 
ture's plan.  To  the  humane  our  work 
appeals  as  it  assures  mankind  of  a  cur- 
tailment of  human  suffering.  We  lay 
new  laurels  on  graves  of  the  honoured 
dead  and  write  new  epitaphs  glorifying 
the  ancestors  of  the  worthy  living.  We 
reverence  the  cradle  containing  the  hope 
of  the  race,  we  think  of  past  and  present 
as  the  womb  of  the  future. 


APPENDIX   A 

Maternity  Maintenance,  or  State  Sub- 
ventions to  Mothers 

MEDICAL     ATTENDANCE 

FIRST  and  foremost  comes  the  need  for 
qualified  medical  and  nursing  attendance 
on  the  mother  and  the  newly  born  in- 
fant. At  present  many  mothers  go  al- 
most unattended  in  their  hour  of  need; 
many  tens  of  thousands  more  have  at- 
tendance that  comes  too  late,  or  is  quite 
inadequately  qualified;  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  others  fail  to  get  the  nurs- 
ing arid  home  assistance  that  is  required 
to  prevent  long-continued  suffering  and 
ill  health  to  mothers  and  children  alike. 
The  local  health  authorities  ought  to  be 
required  to  provide  within  its  area  quali- 
fied medical  attendance,  including  all 
necessary  nursing,  for  all  cases  of  child- 

120 


MESCAL  ATTENDANCE      121 

birth  of  which  it  has  received  due  no- 
tice. There  is  no  reason  why  this 
should  not  be  done  as  a  measure  of  pub- 
lic health,  free  of  charge  to  the  patient, 
in  the  same  way  as  vaccination  is  pro- 
vided for  all  who  do  not  object  to  that 
operation;  and  on  the  same  principle 
that  led  to  the  gratuitous  opening  of  the 
hospitals,  to  any  person  suffering  from 
particular  diseases  quite  irrespective  of 
his  means.  What  is,  however,  impor- 
tant is  that  the  necessary  medical  at- 
tendance and  nursing  shall  always  be 
provided.  If  the  community  prefers  to 
recover  the  cost  from  such  patients  as 
can  clearly  afford  to  pay — say,  for  in- 
stance, those  having  incomes  above  a 
prescribed  amount — instead  of  from 
everybody  in  the  form  of  rates  and 
taxes,  this  (as  with  the  payment  for 
admission  to  an  isolation  hospital)  may 
be  an  intermediate  stage.  In  one  way 
or  another,  there  must  be  no  child-birth 
without  adequate  attendance  and  help 
to  the  mother. 


122       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

Pure  Milk 

At  present  many  tens  of  thousands  of 
infants  perish  simply  from  inanition  in 
the  first  few  days  or  weeks  after  birth. 
In  town  and  country  alike  many  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  families  find  the 
greatest  difficulty,  even  when  they  can 
pay  for  it,  in  buying  milk  of  reasonable 
purity  and  freshness,  or  in  getting  it 
just  when  they  require  it,  or  often  in- 
deed in  getting  it  at  all.  The  argu- 
ments in  favour  of  the  municipalisation 
of  the  milk  supply  are  overwhelming  in 
strength.  But  an  even  stronger  case 
can  be  made  out  for  the  systematic  pro- 
vision by  the  Local  Health  Authority, 
to  every  household  in  which  a  birth  has 
taken  place,  of  the  necessary  quantity 
of  pure,  fresh  milk,  in  sealed  bottles, 
delivered  every  day.  Whatever  else  is 
left  undone,  the  necessary  modicum  of 
pure  milk,  whether  taken  by  the  mother 
or  prepared  for  the  child,  might  at  any 
rate  be  supplied  as  the  birth-right  of 
every  new-born  citizen, 


MEDICAL  ATTENDANCE      123 

Maternity  Pensions. 

The  next  step  must  be  the  establish- 
ment of  a  system  of  maternity  pensions 
free,  universal,  and  non-contributory. 
If  they  be  not  universal,  they  will  come 
as  of  favour,  and  be  open  to  the  objec- 
tions rightly  urged  against  all  doles, 
public  or  private.  A  contributory 
scheme  could  only  exist  as  part  of  a  uni- 
versal sick  fund.  If  the  contributions 
were  optional  the  poorest  mothers 
would  get  no  pension  at  all.  If  they 
were  compulsory  on  a  fixed  scale,  the 
scheme  would  still  further  impoverish 
those  it  is  intended  to  benefit.  If  the 
contributions  were  on  a  sliding  scale, 
the  pension  would  be  smallest  just  where 
it  is  most  necessary.  To  work  out  a 
pension  scheme  on  the  basis  of  compen- 
sation for  loss  of  the  mother's  earnings 
would  at  once  involve  a  sliding  scale 
such  as  is  in  force  in  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria, which  would  be  unfair  in  the  work- 
ing, and  benefit  the  poorest  least. 
Moreover,  the  theory  is  fallacious,  in- 


124       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

asmuch  as  it  views  the  woman  as  a 
worker  and  not  as  a  mother.  Let  the 
pension  be  regarded  rather  as  the  rec- 
ompense due  to  the  woman  for  a  social 
service,  second  to  none  that  can  be  ren- 
dered. The  time  will  come  when  the 
community  will  set  a  far  higher  value 
on  that  service  than  it  does  at  present. 
But  at  present  the  main  point  is  to  tide 
the  mother  over  a  time  of  crisis  as  best 

V 

we  may. 

How  long  should  the  pension  last? 
The  average  duration  of  a  maternity 
case  inside  a  hospital  appears  to  be  a 
fortnight.  The  normal  period  during 
which  upper  class  mothers  keep  their 
beds  is  three  weeks,  but  for  some  time 
after  leaving  bed,  the  mother  is  in- 
capable of  any  active  work  without 
harm  to  herself.  Many  internal  dis- 
eases and  nervous  complaints  as  well  as 
a  good  deal  of  the  drinking  among 
women,  have  their  origin  in  getting 
about  too  soon.  For  some  weeks  at 
least,  whether  the  mother  nurses  her 


MEDICAL  ATTENDANCE      125 

baby  or  not,  she  requires  much  more 
than  ordinary  rest  and  nourishment. 
These  considerations  apply  also,  though 
in  a  less  degree,  to  the  period  preceding 
confinement. 

Under  the  law  of  Great  Britain,  the 
period  of  enforced  cessation  from  fac- 
tory work  is  four  weeks.  The  same 
period  is  prescribed  in  Holland  and  Bel- 
gium. In  Switzerland  the  period  is 
eight  weeks. 

These  laws,  though  of  great  value, 
are  often  cruel  in  the  working,  as  they 
deprive  the  woman  of  wages  without 
compensation  just  at  the  time  she  needs 
money  most.  The  result  is  they  are 
often  evaded.  Germany  and  Austria 
have  recognised  this.  In  Germany 
women  are  forbidden  to  work  for  six 
weeks  after  confinement.  But  the  in- 
surance law  of  Germany  provides 
women  with  free  medical  attendance, 
midwife  and  medicine,  and  in  addition 
with  an  allowance  not  exceeding  seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  her  customary  wage  for 


126       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

the  six  weeks.  There  is  further  a  pro- 
vision that  pregnant  women  unable  to 
work  should  be  allowed  the  same  amount 
for  not  more  than  six  weeks  previous  to 
confinement.  A  similar  insurance  sys- 
tem exists  in  Austria  and  Hungary.  In 
some  parts  of  Germany,  the  municipality 
still  goes  further.  In  Cologne,  the 
working  mother  is  given  a  daily  grant 
to  stay  at  home  and  suckle  her  child, 
and  visitors  see  that  this  condition  is 
fulfilled.  The  Cologne  system  has  been 
adopted  by  some  municipalities  in 
France.  In  Leipsic,  every  illegitimate 
child  becomes  a  ward  of  the  munici- 
pality, which  puts  it  out  to  nurse  with 
certified  persons  who  must  produce  it 
for  inspection  on  demand. 

These  provisions  enable  the  govern- 
ment of  Germany  to  enforce  the  law 
against  the  employment  of  women  in 
the  last  period  of  pregnancy  without 
hardship  to  them.  The  compensation 
given  to  German  mothers  is  already  felt 
to  be  insufficient,  but  there  is  a  difficulty 


MEDICAL  ATTENDANCE      127 

in  making  it  more  generous  arising  from 
the  fact  that  the  system  is  a  scheme  of 
insurance;  the  benefits  cannot  be  in- 
creased without  a  rise  in  the  contribu- 
tion. In  a  free  pension  scheme,  this 
difficulty  will  not  occur.  A  small  be- 
ginning might  be  made  by  way  of  ex- 
periment to  familiarise  the  public  with 
the  advantage  of  caring  for  maternity, 
with  a  knowledge  that  its  scope  could 
be  extended  indefinitely  without  disloca- 
tion of  the  scheme.  But  the  period  like 
the  amount  must  be  substantial  even  at 
first.  If  the  pension  is  to  have  any  per- 
manent value  it  should  extend  over  a 
period  of  at  least  eight  weeks:  about 
two  weeks  before  and  six  weeks  after 
the  date  on  which  the  birth  is  expected 
to  take  place. 

The  above  is  a  brief  resume  of  the 
essential  features  of  the  British  Fabian 
Society's  scheme  for  the  Endowment  of 
Motherhood.  In  "Fabian  Tract  No. 
149"  (from  which  these  extracts  are 
made)  $2.50  per  week  is  suggested  as 
a  reasonable  maternity  allowance. 


APPENDIX  B. 

Sterilisation  of  the  Unfit. 


THE  State  Legislatures  of 
Pennsylvania,  Oregon,  Indiana  and 
Connecticut  have  already  passed  meas- 
ures to  secure  this  object.  On  Febru- 
ary roth,  1907,  Indiana  passed  the  fol- 
lowing act:  — 

"An  Act  entitled  an  Act  to  prevent 
procreation  of  confirmed  criminals,  idi- 
ots, imbeciles,  and  rapists  —  providing 
that  superintendents  or  boards  of  man- 
agers of  institutions  where  such  persons' 
are  confined  shall  have  the  authority,  '' 
and  are  empowered  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee of  experts,  consisting  of  two 
physicians,  to  examine  into  the  mental 
condition  of  such  inmates. 

"Whereas   heredity  plays   an  impor- 
tant part  in  the  transmission  of  crime, 
128 


MEDICAL  ATTENDANCE      129 

idiocy,  and  imbecility,  therefore,  be  it 
enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
State  of  Indiana,  that  on  and  after  the 
passage  of  this  act,  it  shall  be  compul- 
sory for  each  and  every  institution  in  the 
State  entrusted  with  the  care  of  con- 
firmed criminals,  idiots,  rapists,  and  im- 
beciles, to  appoint  upon  its  staff,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  regular  institution  physi- 
cian, two  skilled  surgeons  of  recognised 
ability,  whose  duty  it  shall  be,  in  con- 
junction with  the  chief  physician  of  the 
institution,  to  examine  the  mental  and 
physical  condition  of  such  inmates  as 
are  recommended  by  the  institutional 
physician  and  board  of  managers. 

.  "If  in  the  judgment  of  this  commit- 
tee procreation  is  inadvisable  and  there 
is  no  probability  of  improvement  of  the 
mental  condition  of  the  inmate,  it  shall 
be  lawful  for  the  surgeons  to  perform 
such  operation  for  the  prevention  of 
procreation  as  shall  be  decided  safest 
and  most  effective.  But  this  operation 
shall  not  be  performed  except  in  cases 


130       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

that   have  been  pronounced  unimprov- 
able." 


In  August,  1909,  the  Connecticut 
State  Legislature  enacted  the  follow- 
ing : — 

uAn  Act  concerning  operations  for 
the  prevention  of  Procreation. — Be  it 
enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives  in  General  Assembly 
convened: 

"Section  i. — The  directors  of  the 
State  prisons  and  the  superintendents  of 
State  Hospitals  for  the  insane  at  Mid- 
dletown  and  Norwich  are  hereby  au- 
thorised and  directed  to  appoint  for 
each  of  said  institutions,  respectively, 
two  skilled  surgeons,  who,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  physician  or  surgeon  in 
charge  at  each  of  said  institutions,  shall 
examine  such  persons  as  are  reported  to 
them  by  the  warden,  superintendent,  or 
the  physician  or  surgeon  in  charge,  to 
be  persons  by  whom  procreation  would 
be  inadvisable. 


MEDICAL  ATTENDANCE      131 

"Such  board  shall  examine  the  physi- 
cal and  mental  condition  of  such  per- 
sons, and  their  record  and  family  his- 
tory so  far  as  the  same  can  be  ascer- 
tained, and  if  in  the  judgment  of  the 
majority  of  said  board,  procreation  by 
any  such  person  would  produce  children  , 
with  an  inherited  tendency  to  crime,  Jn-  ,  L 
sanity,  feeble-mindedness,  idiocy,  or  im- 
becility, and  there  is  no  probability  that 
the  condition  of  any  such  person  so  ex- 
amined will  improve  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  render  procreation  by  such  person 
advisable,  or,  if  the  physical  or  mental 
condition  of  any  such  person  will  be  sub- 
stantially improved  thereby  then  the 
said  board  shall  appoint  one  of  its  mem- 
bers to  perform  the  operation  of  vasec- 
tomy  or  oophorectomy,  as  the  case  may 
be,  upon  such  person.  Such  operation 
shall  be  performed  in  a  safe  and  hu- 
mane manner,  and  the  board  making 
such  examination,  and  the  surgeon  per- 
forming such  operation,  shall  receive 
from  the  State  such  compensation,  for 
services  rendered,  as  the  warden  of  the 


132       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

State  prison  or  the  superintendent  of 
either  of  such  hospitals  shall  deem  reas- 
onable. 

"Section  2. — Except  as  authorised  by 
this  act,  every  person  who  shall  per- 
form, encourage,  assist  in  or  otherwise 
promote  the  performance  of  either  of 
the  operations  described  in  Section  i  of 
this  Act,  for  the  purpose  of  destroying 
the  power  to  procreate  the  human  spe- 
cies :  or  any  person  who  shall  knowingly 
permit  either  of  such  operations  to  be 
performed  upon  such  person — unless  the 
same  be  a  medical  necessity — shall  be 
fined  not  more  than  one  thousand  dol- 
lars, or  imprisoned  in  the  State  prison 
not  more  than  five  years,  or  both." 

In  California,  in  1909,  the  legisla- 
ture passed  a  statute  which  provides  that 
whenever  in  the  opinion  of  the  medical 
superintendent  of  any  State  hospital,  or 
the  superintendent  of  the  California 
Home  for  the  Care  and  Training  of 
Feeble-minded  Children,  or  of  the  resi- 


MEDICAL  ATTENDANCE      133 

dent  physician  in  any  State  prison,  it 
would  be  conducive  to  the  benefit  of  the 
physical,  mental  or  moral  condition  of 
any  inmate  of  such  home,  hospital  or 
state  prison,  to  be  asexualised,  then 
such  superintendent  or  resident  physi- 
cian shall  call  into  consultation  the  Gen- 
eral Superintendent  of  State  Hospitals 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of 
Health,  and  they  shall  jointly  examine 
into  all  the  particulars  of  the  case,  and 
if,  in  their  opinion,  or  in  the  opinion  of 
any  two  of  them,  asexualisation  will  be 
beneficial  to  such  inmate,  patient,  or  con- 
vict, they  may  perform  the  same. 

The  British  Commissioners  in  Lu- 
nacy in  their  63rd  Report  to  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  1909,  briefly  reviewing  the 
Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the 
care  and  Control  of  the  Feeble-minded, 
say: 

"The  Royal  Commission  devoted 
much  attention  to  the  causation  of  men- 


134       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

tal  defect,  and  arrived  at  the  conclusion 
that  feeble-mindedness  is  largely  inher- 
ited; that  prevention  of  mentally  defec- 
tive persons  from  becoming  parents 
would  tend  to  diminish  the  numbers  of 
such  persons  in  the  population ;  and  that, 
consequently,  there  are  the  strongest 
grounds  for  placing  mental  defectives 
of  each  sex  in  institutions  where  they 
will  be  detained  and  kept  under  effec- 
tual supervision  as  long  as  may  be  nec- 
essary. Public  opinion  would  not,  the 
Royal  Commission  think,  sanction  legis- 
lation directed  to  the  prevention  of  he- 
reditary transmission  of  mental  defect 
by  surgical  or  other  artificial  measures, N 
and  they  regard  restrictions  on  the  mar- 
riage of  persons  of  unsound  mind  as  in- 
advisable, in  view  of  the  fact  that  this 
form  of  mental  disability  is  often  of  a 
limited  or  temporary  character.  As  re- 
spects, however,  congenital  and  incurable 
forms  of  mental  defect,  no  such  consid- 
erations apply,  and  the  only  remedy  is 
to  place  persons  so  suffering  under  such 


MEDICAL  ATTENDANCE      135 

restrictions  as  to  make  procreation  im- 
possible. The  Royal  Commission  were 
evidently  much  impressed  by  the  evi- 
dence they  received,  which  we  can  from 
our  own  experience  amply  corroborate, 
of  the  large  number  of  weak-minded 
women  and  girls  to  be  found  in  the 
worik-houses  throughout  the  country, 
who  go  there  to  be  delivered  of  illegiti- 
mate children,  and  they  invite  your  Lord- 
ship and  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Home  Department  to  consider  whether 
.the  existing  law  provides  adequate  pro- 
tection for  mentally  defective  persons 
against  sexual  crime  and  immorality.  .  .  . 
Sterilisation  of  men  can  be  effectively 
achieved  by  simple  vasectomy  or  section 
of  the  vas  deferens,  and  of  women  by 
the  almost  equally  simple  and  harmless 
method  of  ligature  of  the  Fallopian 
tubes  (Kehrer's  method  as  advocated  by 
Kisch).  It  would  appear  that  both 
these  operations  may  be  effected  by 
skilled  hands  in  a  few  minutes  with  a 
minimum  of  pain  and  inconvenience,  and 


136       RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

they  possess  the  immense  advantage  that 
the  sexual  glands  are  preserved,  and  no 
organ  removed  from  the  body.1 

( i )  It  is  probable,  also,  that  the 
method  of  sterilisation  by  X-rays  may 
some  day  acquire  practical  importance. 
In  this  case  there  is  no  operation  at  all, 
though  the  effects  do  not  last  for  more 
than  a  few  years.  This  might  be  an 
advantage  in  some  cases.  See  British 
Medical  Journal,  August  I3th,  1904; 
ib.  March  nth,  1905;  ib.  July  6th, 
1907 ;  ib.  August  2ist,  1909. 

According  to  Dr.  Havelock  Ellis 
Swiss  alienists  are  unanimously  in  favour 
of  the  sterilisation  of  the  mentally  de- 
generate classes  and  hold  that  this  mat- 
ter should  be  regulated  by  law.  Switzer- 
land is  the  first  European  State  which 
has  adopted  sterilisation  as  an  alterna- 
tive to  the  "indeterminate  sentence"  in 
the  case  of  confirmed  abnormalities  and 
prisoners  convicted  of  serious  sexual  of- 

1  (Havelock    Ellis    in    the    "Eugenics    Review/' 
London,  Eng.) 


MEDICAL  ATTENDANCE      137 

fences  against  children.  At  Wil  in 
Berne,  two  women  and  two  men  were 
incarcerated  in  the  cantonal  asylum.  All 
were  defectives  but  not  strictly  speaking 
insane.  Children  had  already  been 
born  in  each  case.  To  prevent  further 
procreative  degeneracy  sterilisation  was 
suggested  and  agreed  to  by  the  four  per- 
sons who  welcomed  the  operation  as  an 
alternative  to  detention.  The  result  has 
justified  the  experiment.  According  to 
the  Eugenics  Review  there  has  actually 
been  a  marked  change  in  the  characters 
of  the  individuals  and  there  is  certainly 
no  danger  of  their  weaknesses  being  re- 
produced at  the  expense  of  the  coming 
generation. 


THE  END 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  ot  any 
University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4 
days  prior  to  due  date. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


AUG291997 


RETURNED 


APR  2  0  1998 


10  nnn  n  i  /o^\ 


w 


^•?wSffl»iiBliP 

COS71S13H3 


m  u 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Jr   *     t 


